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The unwillingness and inability for batsmen to adopt an aggressive mindset is the reason behind a bowler-dominant edition of the Big Bash League.
Bowlers statistics have been incredible in the infancy of the eighth edition of the BBL – 21 of the 44 bowlers who have bowled at least four overs for the tournament have gone at seven runs or less per over.
The domination of spinners has been spoken about, in particular by Steve O’Keefe, Sandeep Lamicchane and Rashid Khan. They’re proving to be hard to both pick and attack against.
While bowlers deserve great credit for their performances this season, this tournament will clearly be won with the bat. What was produced by the Scorchers against Adelaide, a complete and utter annihilation with the ball, was a byproduct of the batting team’s mindset.
Three teams that have started this season well have been led by batsmen who haven’t been afraid to take the game on and haven’t been scared of the opposition.
D’Arcy Short, Jos Buttler and Mohammed Nabi have scored at an excellent rate and lacked any fear when batting. All teams won their first two games and each of these three batsmen adopted completely different approaches to what has become the new norm this year.
The Melbourne Stars’ first victory of the season may have been set up by the bowlers, but Peter Handscomb’s stunning 70 off 35 deliveries made it an easy run chase and locked in the result early.
We saw the second edition of the T10 league, which brought up many different opinions on the validity of the format, which highlighted that no bowler in the world is ‘unhittable’.
The seemingly dominant Rashid Khan was ineffective, with just six wickets in nine matches and going at 11.16 per over. Sandeep Lamicchane averaged a wicket a game but had an economy rate of 13.54.
(AAP Image/Hamish Blair)
This isn’t to suggest that batsmen in the BBL need to attack a T20 game in the same manner as those who played in the T10 competition. It does, however, indicate that for teams in the Australian T20 competition to thrive, the batsmen needn’t be so hesitant.
The lack of conviction in Australian cricket at the moment has been contagious, and the sense of a great unknown from the international stage has seeped into the most entertaining league in the world.
It is those batsmen, like D’Arcy Short, Ben McDermott and Glenn Maxwell, who are providing a real indication of what could be with their swashbuckling yet smart batting.
Watch Alex Carey’s innings against Brisbane and compare it to his innings against Perth to see just how influential the mindset of a batsman is.
The more batsmen who can approach the game and understand that each delivery they face is a new challenge, as opposed to seeing an entire innings as one great task, the more this competition will thrive.
Without a change in mindset, we will continue to see lower-scoring matches and ultimately a less exciting product. If it takes looking at a T10 league to show how easy it can be to put the foot down and whack a cricket ball over the fence, then so be it.
The first team that approaches an aggressive batting mindset consistently will win the BBL. Expect the Brisbane Heat to start taking this competition on.