A simple suggestion: Play less on the front foot, India
Remember how foreign experts would go gaga over how wristy Indian batsmen were in their strokeplay and how playing off the legs behind square-leg was a ‘bread and butter’ shot for them? Well, here is a revelation for you: in the WTC final, New Zealand batters hit far more boundaries off their legs behind square-leg than Indians.
Virat Kohli now wants his batsmen to take more risks; this is obviously a reaction to India’s slow run-rate through the Test. I have a simpler suggestion. Rather than trying to get into a more attacking mindset or deliberately taking more risks, I would say, just play less on the front foot!
It was staggering to see the footwork of the Indian batsmen at Southampton. Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat, Ajinkya Rahane and even Rishabh Pant were standing well outside the batting crease and getting on to the front foot, no matter what the length. Pant though was quick to change and play largely on the back foot when Neil Wagner started bouncing him.
It started with Gill in the first innings. A couple of years back, he had a nice back foot trigger movement and came forward only when the ball was full. But at the Test level, after being occasionally exposed with his limited front foot stride and hard hands at length balls outside off, he has made an extreme course correction. In Southampton, he stood a foot outside the crease and was taking a giant stride towards the bowler, length notwithstanding.
Once he even skipped forward to defend Kyle Jamieson on a pitch that was seaming and bouncing and Jamieson is 6 ft 8 inches tall! It was a matter of time before Jamieson bowled one short that hit him on the helmet and then Gill wasn’t advancing towards the big fast bowler as much. He got out soon after.
Pujara was the same: forward all the time but not with as big a stride. Virat, well, he has been playing like this for a while but more on him a little later. Rahane too is part of the front foot brigade now. His is tentative front foot play but it’s still front foot to balls of varying lengths.
Why are Indian batsmen so obsessed with getting forward to fast bowlers, especially swing bowlers?
Here is what I think. Standing outside the crease makes the job of someone like Tim Southee a little difficult, he does not get as much time in the air to use his main weapon—the late outswinger—so your chances of survival improve.
But in batting it’s always about what you gain and what you lose when you make a change in your technique.
In this Test, we didn’t see Indians playing away from the body with hard hands too much —it’s a weakness that hurt them on earlier England tours—but while addressing this they have forsaken a lot of their natural abilities to score.
There is a good reason why so many back foot dominant players have been immensely successful in England—think of Steve Smith and Alastair Cook. When you go right back in the crease to a ball that is slightly short, because of the movement prevalent in these conditions, you get a wider angle to deal with when the ball is under your eyes.
This means more space on the off-side and the leg-side to play your back foot punches and flicks. Rohit and Ashwin were able to do this because they weren’t getting onto the front foot all the time.
VIRAT (KOHLI) IS EXCEPTIONAL. HE IS MENTALLY THE TOUGHEST BATTER I HAVE SEEN. HE CAN MANAGE WITH THIS (FRONT FOOT) FOOTWORK BUT NOT EVERYONE.
You don’t even have to develop an attacking mindset or train your mind to take more risks, run making will happen instinctively when you start reacting differently to different lengths. The bowlers’ job of stopping you from scoring runs also gets a lot easier when you are constantly forward. The bowler just has to pitch the ball on good length and because the batsman is trying to meet the ball early, it’s always a good ball that you have to defend or leave.
In India you can drive that same length ball on the up on the front foot, not in England. All batsmen I have mentioned here have of late changed their technique, so I guess it would be easy for them to return to their roots.
Virat is currently sold on the front-foot theory. It’s worked for him so far, but he too was hit on the helmet while being on the front foot to a bouncer. Front foot play suits his temperament too, where even in defence he wants to convey dominance to the opposition by being that far forward. But Virat is exceptional. He is mentally the toughest batter I have seen. He can manage with this footwork but not everyone. So my advice to Indian batters is to emulate Virat’s intensity, his focus while batting, his competitiveness but not his footwork please.