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Aussie cricketers lost ability to rotate strike

Roar Rookie
30th August, 2011
6

Before the days of juggernauts like Hayden and Sehwag, any opening batsmen would tell you the best way to play the new ball is from the non-strikers end, with the importance of getting off strike crucial to the start of any successful innings.

A single releases pressure on the batsmen, keeps the scoreboard moving, and more importantly, interrupts the rhythm and plans of the opposition.

Throughout the Ashes and the World Cup, it was clear that Australians lacked the ability to get off strike. The lost art of the ‘nurdle’ needs to be rediscovered.

In order to win the upcoming series against Sri Lanka, the Australian batsmen must be able to use their feet and use the crease. This does not mean charging down the wicket every ball, but picking the flight early and playing the ball late.

On the 2004 tour, the two most successful batsmen were Lehmann and Martyn. Neither jumped towards the bowler every ball, but used the depth of their crease, played late and manipulated the ball, particularly square of the wicket.

Those that forced the ball and attempted to hit Murali out of the park did not achieve the same success.

Unfortunately, our most influential player is flawed. There are plenty who will argue Watson is a good player of spin, given the regularity with which he heaves bowlers over the fence.

Yet Watson is like a tailender, either slogging or defending. That tactic cannot work in Test cricket, neither in Sri Lanka nor the rest of the subcontinent. Watson must develop a tactic that allows him to get off strike.

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Given he has such hard hands, and cannot manoeuvre the ball, Watson should learn to sweep consistently, much in the same way that Matthew Hayden found success on the subcontinent.

Before this turns into a Watson-bashing article, Watson’s has had some success against spin, last year hitting 126 against India. Watson again exhibited a distinct disability to get off strike or even score, but still achieved a century through bloody-minded determination.

This level of application, should he be able to summon it again, would properly be rewarded by a tactic that allowed him to score regularly, if not heavily, against spin.

Watson is not the only Australian batsman who does not understand the value of the nurdle. Phil Hughes, in his three Ashes tests, could not push a ball into a gap and take a single. The pressure built, and Hughes was subsequently dismissed cheaply.

Most Australian batsmen told a similar story. In Sri Lanka, it has been painfully obvious that batsmen such as Haddin, Watson, Smith and David Hussey have not learnt the lesson.

Anyone watching Clarke, or even the English batsmen against India (and Rahul Dravid), would note the wealth of runs scored by simply turning the ball through square leg.

Unfortunately, most Australian players have forgotten how to use their feet, and are more concerned with playing shots with their hands rather than using their feet and batting smartly.

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In a few months Australia will face the South African arsenal of fast bowlers. If ever there was a need to learn how to rotate the strike and upset the bowler, it will be then. Let’s hope they learn fast.

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