Cricket has always been a dangerous game. It has resulted in serious injury and also unfortunately some deaths over the last 400 years.
The last forty years have seen an increase in the quality and options of protective equipment, as well as tweaks to the rules in order to try and safeguard players at all levels of the game. Yet the best protection of all is the one advocated for centuries, a good technique, along with never taking your eye off the ball.
Regrettably the dawn of the batting helmet has seen more players being hit on the head than in the days prior to its emergence. Two reasons have been cited for this, the first is that by wearing this protective equipment players feel safer and are therefore more willing to take risks. The second is that the old rule of keeping your eye on the ball has been ignored, because they have a helmet, and that will protect them.
How many players when hit on the helmet today are hit when they turn their head away from the ball? In some instants this is a natural reaction when they have lost sight of the ball, but often it is purely and simply down to technique.
There are some coaches who will tell you that often the player has found themselves in the wrong position for the shot they were hoping to play. So is this poor shot selection? Is it a player being over ambitious? Or is it the bad habits honed thanks to the proliferation of T20 cricket? Some will tell you it is in part all three. Yet probably the biggest issue is poor coaching at a crucial part of their development.
What is worrying is the decline in good technique amongst the top players around the world. Yes there will always be freakish players who rip up the MCC Coaching manual and still manage to perform at the highest level, but these players are few and far between. Just as there are few who can achieve what David Warner has for Australia.
Warner was labelled early in his career ‘a T20 specialist.’ So good was Warner that he made his international debut for Australia in a Twenty20 International against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in January 2009, becoming the first man since 1877 to represent Australia without having played in a first-class match! He made an immediate impact.
Two years later Warner was selected to play Test Cricket. There were many who said his technique would let him down in this longer format. He made three runs in the first innings and 12 not out in the second against New Zealand. In the second Test he scored his maiden Test Match hundred. Warner made 123 not out in his side’s second innings total of 233, and in doing so became just the sixth person to carry his bat through the fourth innings of a Test match. He is ever-present in Australia’s T20, One Day International and Test team, having scored hundreds in all three formats of the game. His personality and involvement in the sandpaper incident in South Africa may have put many off him as a person, but there can be no denying he is an outstanding versatile batsman.
Warner has opened the Australian innings with thirteen different partners: Chris Rogers, Ed Cowan, Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw, Shaun Marsh, Cameron Bancroft, Philip Hughes, Usman Khwaja, Shane Watson, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Marcus Harris and the latest Will Pucovski. Of all of these five averaged over a 50 run opening partnership, Khwaja’s one innings saw them score 71 and Steve Smith’s one time opening with Warner resulted in 51. Joe Burns, Shaun Marsh and Chris Rogers are the others to average over 50, and bat multiple times with Warner.
Which shows just how tough it is to open the batting at Test level.
Many experts will tell you that when it comes to opening the batting a good technique is crucial. As we all know opening batsmen face the fast bowlers at their freshest, and with a new ball in their hand. This is no place for the faint-hearted.
Will Pucovski was the latest to partner Warner in the third Test match against India, and he acquitted himself admirably with 62 runs in the Australian first innings. He made 10 in the second innings.
While many in the Australian media were waxing lyrical about his performance, and the television pundits in the main positively glowing, others were questioning whether this young man has what it takes to bat in this position at the highest level.
Pucovski like many modern day players likes to move across his stumps as the bowler approaches. The difference is how far he moves across his stumps. Most opening batsmen limit that lateral movement due to the pace at which the ball is arriving and the reaction-time they will have. What Pucovski showed was that he has exceptional hand/eye co-ordination. However does he have the technique to survive at this level against a world class bowling attack?
In 2017 Victorian Pucovski was hit on the helmet by Ben Cutting of New South Wales and had to retire hurt in a JLT Cup match. A year later he was hit again, this time by Sean Abbott in a Sheffield shield match and suffered concussion. In December of 2020 he was struck again, this time in a match against India A by Kartik Tyagi.
What is a concern is that no one has criticised the batsman’s technique in any of these incidents. Most of the discussion is on the ball not getting up as high as the batsman expected. Which seems a very weak discussion point. What is it that they say about lightening never striking twice in the same place?
Pucovski’s coach for Victoria, and and also in the Australia A game against India is and was former Australian opening batsman Chris Rogers. He was reported as saying at the time “He’s been through it before and keeps coming out the other side, so he’s definitely shown resilience.” He also was quoted as saying “He’s done so much work on playing the short ball and he just made a mistake, sometimes you don’t always get it right.”
This is true, but if a batsman is continually making the same mistake, then there is a problem.
In the Test match Pucovski slipped when playing a hook shot, this time the focus turned to his boots rather than his technique! The reason he slipped playing this shot was the position he found himself in when the ball arrived as a result of walking across his stumps. If one looks back on the video clips when he has been hit on the helmet previously, again he walks across his stumps and is not in the right position to play the hook shot.
One can only surmise that his wonderful hand eye co-ordination has prevented him being hit on more occasions. That can be the only reason why no one has addressed what is clearly a flaw in his technique. A flaw that in the main he has managed to get away with at a lower level, but one that could prove extremely dangerous at the highest level.
The basic rule when it comes to hooking is that the batsman should be inside the line of the ball. When Pucovski has been struck, the ball has either been coming straight on at him, or has been on the offside of his body. As the MCC Coaching Manual – which many believe is outdated and superfluous – states: “To play it with safety, it is essential that the batsman should shift his right foot, and with it the line of his body balance, not only back, but far enough across to off to be just outside the line of flight.”(This is for a right-handed batsman).
It goes on to say, “On fast wickets, however short the ball, the hook is a dangerous stroke and must never be attempted until a batsman is well set; even then it demands quickness of eye, feet and wrist if it is to be played successfully.” Obviously this is far easier to write about than to put into practice. Many an opening batsman will play the hook shot early in their innings. Others will wait until later in their innings. Some may opt not to play it at all and will duck or sway out of the way.
As much as the coaches are correct that Pucovski hooks successfully more times than he doesn’t, one can’t help feeling that he needs guidance on the playing of this delivery. If he is going to hook he needs to be disciplined enough to only play the shot when he is in the correct position. Or one feels that his test career will indeed prove to be a short one and those in the media who were quick to praise his ability will be left with egg on their faces.
As the old saying goes one swallow doesn’t make a summer!
Great article Ashley.