2.0 Batting
Virender Sehwag – Sehwag battled balance issues throughout the tour of Australia. His lack of footwork has been cited by many pundits, but if truth be told, Sehwag has often given the impression that his feet are painted on even when the opener has gone through prolific run periods during his career.
The real problem with Sehwag's batting has been his balance, which ofcourse is somewhat related to his poor foot work. During the test tour, Sehwag was hitting too many balls at catchable height. If your balance is weighted towards the leg side (say backward square leg for visual purposes) your bat will naturally swing in an arc which is conducive to uppish strokes. Ofcourse this can be somewhat compensated by regulation good footwork, however when the two evils combine it is a recipe for dire problems.
Gautam Gambhir – Gambhir was exposed on a number of occasions with balls up around chest height and higher. Indian batsmen having trouble with the rising ball in Australia is as old as time, but have you ever wondered why that is? As in, what are they technically doing wrong?
Gambhir in particular, tries to play defensively on the back foot to balls up around chest height, this is a huge no no in Australia. To play the shot, it requires you to get airborn and jump back in the crease. As soon as you leave the ground, by definition it is impossible to keep your head still, and as everyone knows, the key to a good shot is being perfectly balanced and still at the point of impact. Not to mention that it makes it more difficult to adjust to a ball which seams away.
In Australia you have to play the short ball in one of two ways:
1)Pull/hook and cut, or;
2)Leave (duck or sway)
By Gambhir doing neither of those things he is extremely susceptible to dismissal, by either getting one to pop up off the handle/gloves or finding himself edging as a result of prodding at the ball away from his body as he tries to defend.
Rahul Dravid – Dravid was bowled, a lot. The Australian's exposed and repeatedly cashed in on a technical glitch in Dravid's defence. If you look at most of his dismissals you will note that when playing the defensive shot Dravid fails to get fully over the front knee when trying to keep balls out, instead he just feels for the ball and places his bat down roughly where he thinks the pad is, which immediately creates a gap between bat and pad. Dravid needed to be fully committed to the defensive stroke, instead he too often circumspectly prodded towards the line of the ball. Maybe this was an indication of a man lacking confidence or form and not trusting his abilities?
Noone can accuse Dravid of being a half hearted cricketer, but his defensive play really gave the impression he was not at ease with his game.
Sachin Tendulkar – Tendulkar was, possibly with the exception of Virat Kohli, the in form Indian batsman of the tour. He was technically at the top of his game, but seemed to struggle with his mental plans whilst batting. Too often he found himself trying to change gears from a comfortable 3 or 4 to 1st gear, or even at times neutral. No finer example of this was Tendulkar's second innings dismissal in Sydney, where he fell prodding to part timer Michael Clarke. Perhaps the weight of expectation of this milestone is playing on his mind and he's being too cautious not to get out, but one thing is for sure, Sachin Tendulkar is playing his best cricket when he is on autopilot and not thinking of the match situation or milestone situation. He's just thinking of batting and batting and batting.
VVS Laxman – The silky Laxman looked as low on confidence as he did on runs. In the one innings he did make an impression on the scorecard (second innings in Sydney) he was undone by his one biggest weakness – top of off stump bowling. Laxman's biggest weakness though, is also his biggest strength. He has the ability to turn balls from off stump effortlessly through mid-wicket, but in doing so it requires a player to slightly close the face of the bat, affording him less surface area to play the ball with. If a bowler is good enough he can find an edge or like Hilfenhaus did, find the top of off stump.
This was not a typical Laxman dismissal for the tour, however, which leaves me scratching my head and wondering what went wrong? Technically speaking he looked no different to what he has in the past. This leaves me thinking that it is either a confidence issue, or worse the onset of old age, which is far more terminal.
From a personal perspective it was difficult to watch my favourite Indian batsmen struggle with his game so much this tour.
Virat Kohli – Definitely the one positive to come from this tour for India. In Perth and Adelaide he looked calm, assured and on top of his game, however in Melbourne and Sydney he looked anything but, which made me seriously question his temperament.
In Melbourne and Sydney he was thrown into the middle of a good spell of bowling, no shame in getting out to that, however he seemed to almost be unwilling to let the bowlers have their time with the knowledge that if he played well enough it would cause the Australian attack to switch their plans, which would play into Virat's hands. Instead he saw it as a personal insult to be tied down and instead attempted to thrash and bash the Australians, unsuccessfully.
This changed in Adelaide and Perth, where he combined his good form with a better mental approach to his innings.
The biggest threat to Virat Kohli is Virat Kohli. He let the Australian's get under his skin when he was approaching a milestone in Perth. Some might have seen it as a brash youngster giving the Aussies some of their own, but in actual fact it was playing into the hands of the Australians. When have you ever seen Tendulkar or Dravid look flustered at the crease as a result of something the opposition has said? If Virat can mature quickly enough, he is in for a good test career.
MS Dhoni – His batting was totally inept and unsuited to any type of conditions which have even a slight hint of movement. Dhoni's biggest flaw in his batting is his bottom handedness. Instead of letting his top hand steer the bat, he tries to force every shot with his bottom mitt.
This is most evident in his dismissals caught in the slips and gully, a plan which the Australian's obviously had and executed well. He places his bat down ready for the drive then lets his bottom hand push at the ball, almost like he's using a shovel instead of a regulation bat. This is essentially the perfect way of giving slips catching practice.
Instead of pushing at the ball he should instead be committing to the stroke and getting his head on top and his bottom hand doing the business.
Ravi Ashwin – Wherever Ashwin goes around the world he will be faced with a multitude of short pitched deliveries. Unlike Gambhir, Ashwin attempts to play the pulls and hooks most of the time. Only problem is that he is horrible at them. Instead of playing with a horizontal bat, he almost plays with a diagonal (at best) bat. Basically looking to overhead smash the delivery. This is basically impossible to control, and is all feel based, and just hoping that when you do connect, it lands safely. I would be suggesting that Ashwin either learns to play the pull shot correctly, or more likely – put it away and learn to duck and dodge.
Zaheer Khan – In a series where runs were golden for India, Zaheer Khan's lack of appetite for the battle with the bat was a disgrace. He simply did not want to be out there. A player who was not the worst lower order player going around was reduced to Chris Martin levels of ineptitude. It wasn't a technique thing, it was a mind set.
