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Is power hitting the future of cricket?

Ottoman

First Class Player
Joined
Mar 20, 2013
Runs
3,186
With the advent of T20 cricket many batsmen have developed new cricketing shots such as the Dil-scoop, the reverse sweep, Dhoni’s famous helicopter shot, or sweeping a fast bowler. These shots are effective but they are not the beauty of cricket. Slogging in cricket is just like a painkiller in medicine. It provides a temporary solution, but can never cure the problem.

Then there are Players like Chris Gayle, Maxwell, Finch, Warner who can literally murder someone with the ball as they hit it with tremendous power & force.

Kumar Sangakarra, Michael Clarke, Mahela Jaywardene & Mohammad Yousuf’s departure from international cricket is a heavy blow for the cricketing generation whose mouth waters when they see an elegant drive being played. These players were perhaps from an endangered species of cricketers as such sheer skill is not in production anymore. Maybe we have been the last one to witness such class and elegance in a game of cricket.

The T20 format is the main culprit for causing this decline in cricketing talent, as a sweet connection to the ball is all you need to excel in it & ICC has also helped this by making rules that support this brutal hitting, recent change of rule to award a free hit for every no ball & Batting paradise pitches in World Cup 2015 shows that ICC is in favor of this. Various T20 leagues have also helped in this cause as they are giving young & upcoming opportunity to play this brand of cricket & achieve fame.

Cricket is not the only sport that has fallen victim to this trend.

Hockey, Pakistan’s national sport on paper, too has become dominated by violent slashes of the ball and carefully pre planned strategies to avoid opposition defenders as the game has become more fast & power based. Gone are the days when one man would simply outclass the opposition team with his intricate dribbling and swift turns.

Football has managed to cling onto its appreciation for skill with the likes of players such as Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo, who can dodge defenders with their elegant skills and precisely-executed moves. However, power has also seeped into football, as skill alone is not a determining factor for a successful player anymore.
Cricket is going through adolescence. Test cricket, which is thought to be the most revered format, is very quickly losing viewership as people, fans & ICC now wanted to see more & more sixes & fours being hit.

What you guys think about this, is this just a phase where power hitters are making hay, or is power hitting indeed the future of the game?
 
The Dilscoop is a finesse shot, not a power shot. It depends on the pace of the bowler and the bravery of the batsman, not on their ability to launch big hits. Also look at guys like Smith and Root, they're not huge hitters of the ball, they score their boundaries either through normal cricketing shots or unorthodox improvisations. I don't think that big hitting is going to be the future for all batsmen, but I do agree that we may see more and more big hitters coming through. But there will always be a place for the finesse-style player.
 
The Dilscoop is a finesse shot, not a power shot. It depends on the pace of the bowler and the bravery of the batsman, not on their ability to launch big hits. Also look at guys like Smith and Root, they're not huge hitters of the ball, they score their boundaries either through normal cricketing shots or unorthodox improvisations. I don't think that big hitting is going to be the future for all batsmen, but I do agree that we may see more and more big hitters coming through. But there will always be a place for the finesse-style player.

+1
Dilscoop, reverse sweep, or sweeping a fast bowler are all finesse shots. It required proper timing and placement.
 
what about all the slogs & switch hits?

problem is we all want o see more classy players but all marketable players are coming up are sloggers who just wack the cricket balls with their bat.

Smith just played a beautiful T20 innings against England which was a treat to watch on the other hand innings by Morgan & Moeen was like, they want to kill the ball.

With these big bats & short boundries these type of batsmans are making hay, If they had to play with older bats they won't have survived that longer.
 
The ultimate goal of cricket is to make runs. Anything else is secondary. If power hitting can enable a batsman to get the runs (without losing his wicket in the process) then it is a successful batting strategy.
 
Thats why it was cool to watch Shahid Afridi score the fastest 100:afridi because there was no trend of smashing and bats were much smaller.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Really enjoy different training techniques...T20 is becoming more&more about having a strong swing&#55357;&#56485; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DontDieWondering?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DontDieWondering</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/graynics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@graynics</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GlamCricket?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GlamCricket</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/StrikersBBL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StrikersBBL</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/WarriorsCrickEC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WarriorsCrickEC</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/JohnDeere?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JohnDeere</a> <a href="https://t.co/hLlDtuNlNX">pic.twitter.com/hLlDtuNlNX</a></p>— Colin Ingram (@CAIngram41) <a href="https://twitter.com/CAIngram41/status/1027843519807930369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Everyone loves the satisfaction of hitting a big six :)
 
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