Cricket Batting Tips: How Can I Improve My Hitting For T20 Cricket
by SKR
Matthew Hayden: Taking Control
Hi Sir,
I am 15 years old, I open the batting and also keep wicket.I am having a problem in my batting, I want to be able to hit long ball so that I can clear the boundary and pierce the field.
I open the batting in 30-50 over matches but when it comes to 20-20 cricket I am pushed down the order to No. 4 or even lower.
I am concerned that this is a great draw back to my development as a cricketer.
I look forward to your help.
Thank You, SKR
Hi SKR, there are several things you can work on, in this order …
1. your Batting Game Plan
2. your Batting Technique
3. your Strength and Conditioning for batting
The first part of your game plan to be aware of is ‘getting in’, like the other 2 formats you still need to give yourself an opportunity to assess conditions and look at the bowlers pace and angles.
Your time frame is anywhere from 6 – 18 balls based upon conditions and opposition.
You are still looking for scoring opportunities, they are based on your strengths though.
Be aware of your favourite boundary areas and where you are looking to play, it’s important you play to your strengths, whether it is front foot drives or back foot cuts and pulls.
You also need to rotate the strike, so be aware of knocking the ball into space so you can get your partner on strike as well. This stops the bowler from being able to build up pressure in the over, you are more likely to get a long hop or half volley this way.
The other thing you can look at is to use the crease to counter swing and to disrupt his length.
One of my favourite batters is Matthew Hayden, as you can see in the attached photo, his game plan was to take the initiative from the bowler straight away. He would go out of his crease and take his stance closer to the bowlers length.Pushing the bowler back off his length and making it difficult for him to swing the ball.
In this photo you can see he developed this as part of his game plan for Test cricket as well.
This is something you can practice, I would suggest you begin by taking your stance 6 inches out of your crease to start with and see how that effects the bowlers’ length and what scoring opportunities it presents.
If you like this, make sure you master it first in practice before you try it in a game.
In 20-20 cricket there is always more time than you think, so take your time, keep your normal pre-shot routine, breathe easy, scan the field properly for space, re-set your focus.
2. Batting Technique : there is a very simple drill to improve your power and length in your hitting.
If you are at a cricket club that has a bowling machine, set it on a full length and set the goal to hit the ball dead straight, as if you are hitting it down the ground to hit the sight screen.
Swing easy, don’t look to over hit the ball, relax, watch the ball and look to make good contact, with the goal of hitting it at the sightscreen.
This allows you to check your batswing, you can’t hit straight without holding the shape of your shot and making sure you are swinging through the line of the ball.
If you don’t have a bowling machine, get a friend or coach to throw some balls to you in the middle and work on the drill in the same way.
You may want to get the thrower to wear a helmet, it can be quite dangerous for them when you are hitting the ball cleanly.
Be patient with this, this will improve your batswing, weight transfer and challenge you to hold the shape of the shot whilst seeking to generate power.
Over time this will benefit your batting, especially when you start to clear the boundary and your confidence grows in your long ball hitting ability.
Strength and conditioning: your physical strength is important in the power you can generate when batting, have a look at Greg King’s conditioning pages here at Cricket Fitness, you can begin these exercises without using any weights as your body is still growing, weight till your older, over 18 to begin to work with weights.
Best wishes and happy batting ! regards Coach
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Cricket Batting Tips: How Do I Play Fast Short Pitched Bowling
by Jason V
(Cape Town: South Africa)
Good day coach, Jason here. I am an opening batsmen at my cricket club. I have problems with facing fast short pitched bowling.
I lose the ball as soon as it hits the pitch. Could you give me some tips on how to learn to deal with this problem please.
Hi Jason, there are a couple of solutions here:
Firstly your not losing sight of the ball off the pitch, the brain has already processed the trajectory of the ball in the first few metres of its flight.
I would presume in nets at the club that you face 80-90% of all deliveries on the front foot.
You need to give the brain the opportunity to practice tracking the balls flight when it is short.
The brain needs to experience ‘watching’ the ball when it is bowled short and connect new ‘wiring’ around how you are going to play.
This brings us to game plan, you need to decide how you are going to play the short ball.
Options … depending on the oppositions attack, if they only have one or two quicks you can look to work through their first spell and then get stuck into the spinners and medium pacers.
You can look to play offensively, deciding on your back foot options, cut, pull, hook, back foot drive. Its important to play to your strengths and play to your natural temperament.
Bearing in mind you have been battling with the short ball its going to make sense to work with a nice tight game plan for the short ball, nothing too expansive to start off with.
Decide on the shots you want to play in the first phase of the game, central to this is how can you get off strike, low risk.
Strike rotation is important here so that you don’t get stuck down one end and the game doesn’t move forward.
Now you need to simulate this when you go to the nets, work through your shot selection, get your team mate or coach to throw to you or feed the bowling machine so you can spend time working through your plan.
Set out a good game plan and then you have a point of departure to reflect on and evaluate.
Good skills Coach
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Cricket Batting Tips: How To Play On the Legside
by Kishore
(Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
Hi this is Kishore, can you please give some advice and help with my batting technique?
I am playing well through the offside and in the legside behind square, but I am really battling to play in front of square on the onside ! Can you please help?
Hi Kishore,
playing in front of square on the legside is determined by the line of the ball.
If the ball is angling into leg stump or outside leg stump then you are going to play the ball through square leg and behind square to fine leg.
To hit the ball up through mid on when the ball is pitched on middle and leg don’t try to hit the ball too hard.
You need to hold the shape and balance of the stroke. Your balance comes from your head and front shoulder position so keep your head still and lead with your head toward the ball when beginning the stroke.
Imagine you’re hitting the ball for two up the ground, this allows you to hold your balance and to hit right through the ball.
As a practical drill, get a partner to throw to you, over arm or underarm, and work on stroking the ball up through mid on. You can mark this as a zone with cones or put targets down and perhaps start with 30 shots and measure your success rate, making a note of what works and what doesn’t.
Be pro-active and particpate in your own learning.
To hit through mid-wicket, set up aonther target zone, have the ball thrown toward your pads and keep your top elbow high and use your wrists to work the ball into space.
Again, wait for the ball to come onto the blade and use its pace, rather than trying to ‘muscle’ the ball.
30 Shots, measure, reflect and learn. Set a new target next time.
Happy Batting
😉
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Cricket Batting Tips: Problems Playing Against Fast Bowlers
by Alex
(Highlands)
Coach, I am 14 year old all rounder. I am short and I have problems coming forward to fast bowlers as I’m afraid of uneven bounce.
The bowlers angle it into my body and I have cracked my ribs, any tips on finding solutions to my problems?
Thanks Alex
Hi Alex, lets choose to look at being short as a positive, many of the greatest batters the game has known have been short, from Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Don Bradman and Allan Border.
How and why does this help you as a batter?
A length ball to a taller batsman becomes a short ball to a shorter batsman, so the cut, pull, back foot drive and defence to rotate strike become key shots.
The other advantage for a short batsman is that bowlers have to bowl fuller to hit a length to you, so working on your drive and forward defence to rotate strike is going to be important.
So there are genuine advantages, how can you use these now.
Firstly, you need to spend time at the crease so you have to focus on a solid defence, work on your front and back foot defence so that you can rotate strike.
Working the ball into the leg side when the bowler bowls too straight and dropping the ball in the crease and just in front on the off side to rotate strike and hustle a single.
Your going to have steel yourself for playing the quicks, if you are wearing a helmet and an arm guard there is no bowler who can do much damage, a few bruises are part of facing the quicks, think of them as medals.
The quick bowlers usually only bowl 5-6 overs at a time so the plan is how to manage their spells.
You work on your defence and rotation to get off strike.
For attacking options, you need to decide what your best strokes are and when you are going to use them.
If you are stronger on the front foot then you need to wait for drive balls, practice playing close to your body and under your eyes, using the bowlers pace rather than trying to over hit it.
If you are strong on the cut or pull, then do plenty of work on judging length and selecting the right ball, making sure you have got yourself in and are reading the pace and bounce.
Worrying about uneven bounce is just going to make you tight and anxious, it’s important to practice getting into line, its easier to judge pace, line and length when you are in line with the ball.
Hang tough and good batting.
Best wishes Coach.
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Cricket Batting Tips: Batting Against Real Quick Bowlers
Hello Coach,
I want to learn the technique(s) of batting against quick bowlers. I am able to bat and score against slow,medium pacers and spinners but not against the quick ones. I can only defend at the most..that is what happens if I face them in early overs. Left handed batsman with a high backlift, that will give you an idea on my current technique. Appreciate your reply soon.
Here is a link to my batting video which is somewhat old but will help you relate my issues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXSHMmJE7s8
Thanks!
Player-in-the making
Hi, Player in the making !
Thanks for the mail, I had a look at your video, looks like there is a bit of Brian Lara in that bat swing !
A couple of observations, there is too much movement in your stance and stroke play.
Stand much stiller, Sachin is a good example of this, so the brain can get a better picture of the ball, this helps judgement of line and length.
If you aren’t judging these then you’re shot selection will be poor.
Secondly,you walk alot when playing your strokes, this is an indicator you are not watching the ball closely. Again, head still for focus and stroke selection.
In the nets, check to make sure you are not walking after the stroke, you should be able to hit the ball and retain your balance afterwards.
Regarding your question, how to improve batting against quick bowling.
There are a couple of things you can do :
Firstly, You can move your hands closer to the handle, shorten your bat swing and play more precise, checked strokes.
You can also make sure you pick the bat up before the bowler releases the ball, these will all give you a head start in creating extra time to play the quick bowlers.
To simulate, you can ask the seam bowlers you work with at nets if they would consider bowling from 21 yards.
They and the coach will have to be cool with this because they need to be sensitive to re-setting their lengths after bowling on a shorter wicket.
What this is going to do is challenge the brain to adapt to the stressor of greater speed.
Over time the brain will adapt and you will find you will have more time to play your strokes against the quicks.
It’s going to be a real challenge to start off with, but if your coach and team mates don’t mind … you could do this twice a week, you’ll find the brain adapts quite quickly.
You can challenge yourself once you have adjusted to the extra speed, to bringing it down to 20 yards.
You can also do this with throw downs in the nets, this can also be beneficial, based upon the same principle.
From a game plan perspective, do your homework where you want to score off the quicks, you don’t have to hit boundaries to keep the score board moving.
Spend some time focusing on where you can rotate strike, with low risk strokes.
Best wishes Coach
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About Richard Pybus
I'm Richard Pybus, I've coached Pakistan, Bangladesh, Middlesex, Titans and the Cape Cobras in South Africa and the goal of this site is to help you to play winning cricket.