Why teams struggle in unfamiliar wickets?
The inability of batsmen to tackle English conditions has been an age-old topic of discussion in cricketing circles. Whenever batsmen from India and Pakistan have failed in those conditions, this topic returns for discussion.
Interestingly, no solution seems to have come out of these discussions and some of the finest batsmen from the subcontinent continue to fail miserably in England.
Many batsmen struggle to judge the ball, especially when it moves a lot. Cricket fans fail to understand what has gone wrong with their heroes whom they have applauded for cracking boundaries and sixes with ease on their home soil.
Most of the Asian countries have lost badly during Test series’ in England. That defeat is discussed and analysed for few days after that, and when they start to win matches on their home soil, everything is forgotten.
However, the batsmen’s inability to play under certain conditions remains unsolved.
Many batsmen failed to click on Australia’s fast paced wickets and some found the bouncy South African wickets very hard.
One must also remember that England, Australia and New Zealand too have struggled on the spinning tracks in the subcontinent.
Only batsmen who put in the hard work to get control of playing in all conditions have gone on to become legends. Hence, shaping a cricketer to play under different conditions should begin very early.
Though the UAE has not produced world class players, the effort that has been put in by some of the cricket academies here is laudable. Every summer a few of these academies make it a point to take budding cricketers to countries like England and expose them to playing in those conditions.
Though the lack of competition on return to UAE and the non-willingness to take up cricket as a profession has resulted in many talented players fading away, the effort put in by these academies should be taken as a model.
Innovative methods
Today, a successful cricketer should be able to play not only under different conditions but also in different formats. Cricket academies here have introduced innovative methods in matches to get youngsters trained in all formats. Just because the UAE team does not figure among world class teams, one should not ignore the methods being followed by some of the academies here. Very rarely does one hear of academies in Asian countries taking youngsters abroad and training them there during school or college holiday seasons.
India’s legendary batsmen Sunil Gavaskar could play the fearsome West Indies pacers because he instructed bowlers to bowl at him from 16 to 18 yards instead of the usual 22 yards. Pakistan have hardly trained their youngsters abroad, but it was when some of their players played in county cricket that they started looking formidable against England. Inability to negotiate playing in unfamiliar conditions will fail them to make a complete cricketer.