shortpitched713
International Captain
I'd love to as well. And of course, the assumption of most is that their reputation would show the worst for such an exposure to a relatively common hazard of years past.
But I think we could be surprised. If you talk to or see interviews of people in sports (playing, coaching etc.) of all kinds the general consensus is that skill levels are increasing relatively quickly over time, especially in comparison to the inherently physical human limitations like size, speed, endurance. This is true across a variety of sports, from basketball to football (soccer), and I'd argue the same holds true for cricket.
I'd argue because the concept of "perfect practice makes perfect" is so much more accessible to players in this age, with the technology of high quality match footage, closeup footage being available to analyze and replicate the techniques of great players when they're coming up, and to find and address weaknesses throughout their career. This growth and adaptation is happening at a dizzyingly quick pace now, compared to yesteryear where you might not have any idea of even what the ball that did you last game actually looked like or how exactly you played it, and having to go by memory.
Combine that with modern training techniques that allow for the ability to replicate ad nauseum match conditions that need to be isolated for improvement, and much more availability of nets time to see more and more deliveries, and my baseline inference would be to assume that the modern player will have a better, more robust batting technique than the player of old.
