Why are India/Bangladesh & others better at finding gaps in the field to score

[mesmerizer85]

Simply a good hand eye coordination to adjust bat speed and angle according to the ball should be enough IMO. This is why Kohli, Mushfiqur are so good in playing ground shots and getting their runs. They don't just stand there like our players and bring bat down without any strategy or just slog to get out. This is the reason we need to find such batsmen or simply polish the so called "talent" we have already got

 

[gani999]

I am not a professional cricketer, so correct me if I am wrong.

Some aspects of the game like rotating the strike by taking singles and looking for gaps in the field can never be taught in academies. They are basic commonsense issues that should come naturally to most people.

I don't know why many Pakistani players are averse to taking singles or finding gaps. Not like we haven't had this problem in India - Viru Sehwag being the prime example. But Pakistan seem to have more dot balls than anyone else. Maybe it is a cultural thing that they like to dominate the opposition by hitting sixes, rather than building the scoreline by taking one single at a time. The obvious danger with this approach is that it is not always possible to hit really talented and experienced bowlers out of the park.

I think Mickey, if he still remians the coach, should teach the Pakistani youngsters the values of these aspects. After all, isn't this what a coach is supposed to do?

 

[topspin]

Simple - Pakistan batsmen play with hard hands whereas the others play with softer hands.

 

[mesmerizer85]

Another problem is the amount of international matches exposure PAK team gets compared to other teams (IND, AUS, SA). It is like doing mock exams as practise to get a feel of the format of the main exam, rather than just learning and heading for the exam. More importantly we need to find the right combination especially in batting that can consistently help us in attaining 300+ scores. A great example is England teams transformation just recently.

 

[Shafi]

Simple lack of talent and ability. Traditionally we never produced even batsman like Rohit, Dhawan etc. Our batsmen neither rotate the strike nor play big shot or innings.
Most of our batsmen are either accumulator like Fawad/ Babar or slogger like Fakhar/Akmals no in between or above.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

It seems rotating the strike is not culturally accepted in Pakistan. Perhaps because of the hero syndrome, our boys think they need to emulate Afridi and hit big sixers otherwise somehow they are less manly.

 

[Usman Chadda]

Simple - Pakistan batsmen play with hard hands whereas the others play with softer hands.

This.

 

[Shafi]

It seems rotating the strike is not culturally accepted in Pakistan. Perhaps because of the hero syndrome, our boys think they need to emulate Afridi and hit big sixers otherwise somehow they are less manly.

Now-a-days we can't even play like Afridi in more batting friendly pitches.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Now-a-days we can't even play like Afridi in more batting friendly pitches.

Afridi wasn't even a proper batsman, he was a powerful slogger of slower bowling. But he is a hero in Pakistan because the average Pakistan fan just likes to see the ball flying out of the ground, they don't really understand or have much patience for more technical nuances of batting like strike rotation.

Pakistan batsmen grow up with this same mentality. If they can't blast it, they will block it and keep the strike so they can have another go next ball.

 

[UsmanhailsAfridi]

Simple

Proper batsmen play with the mindset of single/gaps first, boundary only if bad ball. Our batsmen mostly play with boundary first that’s why they go so hard at the ball or hit straight to fielders even If they are middling the ball. That’s why fielders are there, to protect shots on good balls. Any good batsman will play for the good balls with gaps in mind, we play with boundaries in mind.

 

[mesmerizer85]

No wonder good teams like to hit a four in the first 3 balls of the over to relieve the pressure and can take one or two's at ease thereby managing a healthy run-rate of 5-6 rpo. Its the mentality and strategy planning that our batsmen lack in addition to the shot execution. If only we have such technically sound batsmen who can play 360 degree shots at will

 

[Fahdi]

It has a lot to do with how are batsmen are brought up and the system they come through. As with other things in life cricketers adapt and become accustomed to the conditions and challenges they are faced with.

Strike rotation isn't an easy skill to develop and it doesn't just happen. Players who are good at it are usually ones who work for it. They are always looking for singles. Sarfraz at his peak was extremely good at it because he was working for that single, similarly Kohli also works for that but due to his greater skills the work put in is a lot more subtle.

Strike rotation is an aggressive skill and often comes at the cost of defense. Even Pakistani batsmen can rotate strike when the ball is on the pad or can be worked down to the 3rd man. But when the line is tighter the batsman is a lot more worried about his wicket. In that sort of scenario it's up to the batsman whether he wants to defend solidly or try to work the ball. This decision is going to be based on a few things such as: pitch,conditions and match situation; skill level and trust in ability; the domestic system and pitches.

Pitch, Conditions and Match Situation

It's not hard to understand that difficult conditions make it difficult to rotate the strike. The batsmen become more focused on defense because they are worried about their wicket. They would rather defend with a perfectly straight bat and leave the ball rather than risk angling the bat. A good example is when the Indian team toured South Africa back 2013-14 for a 3 ODI series. Pitches were a bit green and there was swing on offer; the Indian openers played dot ball after dot ball because they didn't want to mess the swinging ball. It's the same thing with match situation. The pitch may not be that difficult but if the team is in trouble it plays on your mind and the pressure to preserve your wicket may hamper your ability to take singles because you don't want to risk it.

Skill Level and trust in your Ability

The more skill you have the more confident you are to take the bit of risk for the single. Players going through a bad patch will also lack the confidence and just try to blunt everything. A good example is Fakhar against India in the last match, at the start he was blocking everything because he wasn't willing to take any sort of risk. Another example is Umar Akmal back in the day when all of our batsmen struggled to rotate strike while Akmal would always have a single on offer. Last Asia cup final he had a partnership with Fawad Alam with zero dot balls if I remember correctly and that was despite the fact that he was new at the crease.

Domestic System and Pitches

The system will obviously play a huge role. The pitches they are brought up on and the challenges the domestic circuit poses will shape the mind set of the batsmen. The First Class pitches have been quite poor in Pakistan for batting. Just last season matches were ending in 4-5 sessions. When the batsmen are unable to trust the pitches they will never risk trying to work a ball on a a good line. They'll be focused completely on defense. This is biggest culprit in my opinion. Batsmen learn to bat by playing hundreds of deliveries in a First Class game, as [MENTION=79064]MMHS[/MENTION] once said "You think AB and Kohli learned batting from T20 leagues?". When all your FC cricket teaches you is to block and block then don't expect the national level coaches to perform miracles.

Other ways Domestic cricket contributes here is fitness and fielding standards. Unfit and lazy players won't be running too many singles no matter, they will always have the block, block and hit approach. Poor fielding standards make taking singles too easy and the difference in skill needed to do the same at the top level will probably be too big. I have seen some of the grounds used in our domestic cricket and you'd need to have a few screws loose to dive on those grounds.

 

[Last Monetarist]

It is surprising how the batting culture in Pakistan has evolved over the last 20 years. When I started watching cricket, we had accumulators like Miandad and Malik who could pick gaps in the field at will. Anwar and Inzamam were also quite adept at finding gaps in the field, although Inzi's running prowess meant that he couldn't really take full advantage of this ability. Then we had Yousaf who could play with soft hands and manoeuvre the ball at will. Playing that way would invariably get us to around 250, which was pretty competitive in that era.

However, somewhere along the line we stopped producing batsmen that could play with soft hands and apply some good old common sense while compiling a limited overs innings. I am afraid I saw things change first hand while I was playing cricket, suddenly the kids I played with wanted to bat like Shahid Afridi and lost all sense of proportion. I was aghast how the batting culture changed, it literally became a game of oneupmanship around who could hit the longest sixes and to hell with the consequences. We suddenly started producing limited overs batsmen who went at the ball hard and batted with little intelligence in general. I include players such as Younis and Misbah in this category.

Shoaib Malik has been an exception to this rule, and he would have fit in nicely in previous decades, but he tends to crumble under pressure. The only other player I have seen in the last decade or so who plays the ball late and should theoretically be able to pick gaps in the field is Asad Shafiq, but of course he is hopeless at limited overs cricket. Maybe Fawad Alam showed promise as well, but we all know how that turned out.

 

[Syed1]

It's because of tape ball cricket which is the first exposure to cricket for every kid in Pakistan. The matches are played in narrow gullies where your only options of scoring runs are hitting straight and hitting long.




/thread

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

It's because of tape ball cricket which is the first exposure to cricket for every kid in Pakistan. The matches are played in narrow gullies where your only options of scoring runs are hitting straight and hitting long.




/thread

They were playing tape ball cricket when Anwar, Miandad and Yousuf were around, as mentioned above, even Shoaib Malik has some skill in that dept.

 

[troodon]

I have seen Babar Azam play so many classy cover drives all straight to the fielders. If it pierces the fielder, its a boundary. Unfortunately for him, all those classy drives end up as dot balls against him.

Pak had the likes of Miandad, Moin Khan who were experts at pinching singles off almost every ball. May be they can help the current crop.

 

[Shutdown Corner]

India is among the best batting sides in cricket. Always have been. And real batting skill is not in hitting boundaries (except in situations where you absolutely have to like a final over when you need 15+ to win). Real batsmanship is about manipulating the face of the bat and nudging the ball around to pick the gaps for 1s and 2s (and 3s in Test cricket). It also requires fitness, which is why Kohli and Mushfiq are so good.

Overs 11-40 in ODIs are the most important part of the innings. The team that bats and bowls well in that segment will win 80% of the time.

For Bangladesh, Tamim and Mushfiq are currently among the best batsmen in ODI cricket...what anyone can do, they can do pretty much just as well. Mahmudullah and Shakib are also handy batsmen as well. Beyond those 4, there is a significant drop off in skill, temperament, and talent. So we have been pretty good in the middle overs, poor in the first 10, and hit or miss in the last 10 over the past few years.