CaptainGrumpy
Banned
Well put in bold. Concise and articulate. But its taken 40 years for some leading coaches to appreciate this bar instructing one player to have a waft as it were, so it will take a bit longer for some fans. The former player commentators do not help things by solely focusing on the bats (and fielding restrictions a little less) as to the reason why they didn't score faster in earlier eras. They give a little credit to reverse hits, switch hits and scoop shots.Because it's too broad and crude a measurement. Why should I increase the SR of Bevan just because some, not all, teams have adopted a different batting strategy 15 years after Bevan played?
You can't use Era SR because a higher SR is not uniform. Take out certain players like AB, Maxwell, Anderson, Ronchi, Miller, Faulkner et al. and the Era SR for the other batsmen goes way down. The better teams like Aussie, NZ, SA bat at a higher strike rate because they're better teams with hitters from 5-8, not because of the era they are batting in.
Kane Williamson has about the same average as Viv Richards but at a lower SR, even though they both bat No. 3. So how can I make a blanket assumption about strike rates?
The fact is that the higher Era SR is a consequence of higher aggression from quality batsmen in the later overs, not because of bigger bats or fielding restrictions or any of these reasons that seem to be offered by people who don't fully grasp the strategic element of cricket batsmanship. Bevan might have been more aggressive if he batted 6 now, but I'd say that he probably wouldn't even make the team on account of not being able to score quickly enough, which is just as important as not getting out in ODIs.
Also, players could have asked for bigger bats from manufacturers in earlier eras. They didn't. They preferred lighter bats that could moved with greater agility. So again, even the bigger bats is part of a new batting philosophy.
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