One of the best pictures I noticed on a cricket subject got here off the bat of Sunil Gavaskar. The bowler was Imran Khan who was quick and had been troubling Indian batsmen collection after collection. The venue was Chennai the place that India-Pakistan Test was played.
Imran’s supply rose sharply, and so too in a sense did the batsman who moved fantastically into line again and throughout, stood tiptoe, met the ball within the high half of the bat and dropped it at his toes. I can’t bear in mind if Imran applauded, however from outdoors the boundary, a handful of spectators did.
I used to be within the media field the place we didn’t do such issues, however in my thoughts I saluted Gavaskar. That backfoot defence was akin to something the attacking participant of the day, Viv Richards had hit. Both defence and assault can be sexy, and converse of the batter’s management.
A decade and extra earlier, as a schoolboy cricketer, I watched fascinated as Alvin Kallicharan of the West Indies played the Indian spinners Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkatraghavan lifeless in defence on a delicate wicket in Bengaluru.
Eknath Solkar, together with his prehensile grasp was ready at brief leg for a mistake, for the one ball the batsman couldn’t maintain down, however it by no means got here. Kallicharan made a basic century, the most effective of three in a match the place Gordon Greenidge and Clive Lloyd too hit tons of. Lloyd’s was all energy and vigour.
A shot of the previous?
Watching batsmen within the IPL strike the ball with startling energy and hit sixes whereas off stability and with such confidence, one wonders if the day of the defensive participant is previous. Cheteshwar Pujara may be the final in a line India has produced, a line stretching again to Vijay Merchant by way of Rahul Dravid and Gavaskar. And not simply that. The day of the nice defensive shot may also be previous, batters deciding that defence is merely the final resort of a approach primarily based on assault.
In the final yr or so, it has been great watching the so-called ‘Baz-ball’ type of cricket played by England, full of batters who create strokes and runs out of deliveries which may have been defended a technology again. Perhaps the mentality owes one thing to T20 cricket which is a sport of the attainable; maybe it owes a lot to the temperament of the captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum. It has seen extra matches ending in victories and defeats. The draw has been just about eradicated from the group’s vocabulary.
Will England be in a position to bat by way of 5 periods to attract a Test match? We will know when the Ashes collection begins in June. Man to man, England have the higher group, and in dwelling situations and given their current report should start favourites. Yet ought to Australia push them into a nook and batting for survival is the necessity of the hour, how will England cope? They have the batsmen, definitely, with Joe Root among the many best there was. But it’s a query of mentality. Somehow, defensive batters discover it simpler to assault than attacking batters to defend.
Counter-attack
When the West Indies carried a truckload of quick bowlers who have been a hazard to life and limb within the 70s and 80s, defending was not likely an choice. Everybody has a plan until they’re punched within the mouth, stated the heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. Something related might be stated about plans in opposition to Malcolm Marshall. Andy Roberts, Mike Holding, Patrick Patterson and others. The finest response, many batters felt, was to assault and rating as many runs as rapidly as attainable earlier than that inevitable ball on the stumps or physique. It was a approach even the nice Don Bradman used in opposition to Bodyline — counter-attack was the most effective defence.
To defend or assault is a query that has typically been given a ethical tinge. This is nonsense. It depends upon the circumstances and wishes of the group, other than the batsman’s personal temperament. But you can’t play any format of the sport for lengthy with out a wholesome combination of the 2 in your arsenal.
It isn’t that spectators bear in mind a defensive stroke, whereas those that ship the ball crusing over the boundary are simply recalled. But when the latter is the extra frequent, it is typically enjoyable to suppose again to the one which didn’t get away into the stands.
