Rank current indian players against short balls

[vvvslaxman]

( I am excluding the old hands Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman) This has been a problem for us. The way Mohinder used to get inside the line of the ball to play hook shot is nowhere to be seen among modern players. They either just try to stand and swing across the line or try to give a bit of room to upper cut . Rarely i see them getting inside the line. With so much modern facilities why can't they practice. Look how Collingwood, McCullum, Watson brutalize any bouncers thrown at them. 1) Dhoni 2) Gauti 3) Viru 4) Karthik 5) Yuvraj 6) Kohli 7) Rohit 8) Raina 9) Yusuf Is that a fair ranking?

[Serani]

Id say its fair, the first 3 are mediocre at playing the short ball, the rest are just very poor.

[patriot]

How do you put Yuvraj so below ? He is arguably our best short ball player. I have seen him thrash spanking boundaries of Donald ( in 2002 ) , Lee and Mcgrath. I think Viru is ranked a litte too high for the short ball. He does look uncomfortable although lately he has been reasonably successful against it.

[cowboysfan]

gambhir is not that great,he just doesn't get out to short balls unlike the others.

[thevortex]

No. That ranking is way too wrong. Dinesh Karthik is perhaps our best player of short pitched bowling. He is an instinctive puller/hooker. But unlike Gambhir he plays those shots with a fair measure of control. Sehwag is a surprisingly good player of the short ball. Especially in the longer form of the game - where he will let it go or tuck the ball towards fine leg calmly. It is only when he is forced to score off such deliveries that he makes mistakes. He is frankly awful when playing the pull/hook. Yuvraj is an excellent puller - as long as the ball is not above waist high and is not directed at the body. He cannot hook. Raina is not too bad actually. The only problem is that after repeatedly getting out he tries to roll his wrists over the ball every time he plays the pull shot. Not always a good idea. The rest are really not good players of the short ball.

[thevortex]

I needed to add - Dhoni is excellent with the pull shot and even the hook. His weakness lies in the square cut and in general that area just short of length outside off stump. And he is weak there because he does not have a high left elbow and can rarely play the forcing shot on the up with a straight bat. Square cut typically is not an easy shot for people with minimal backlifts. Simple mechanics of the game. Dhoni is perhaps the second best player of the short ball after Karthik really. He was not always so. But he has worked on that aspect just as he has worked on his keeping.

[vvvslaxman]

Ya.. it is not a perfect ranking. How you cope with short balls. Some evade. Some attempts shots. In terms of playing shots with fair measure of control i would put Dhoni and Karthik ahead of everyone else. Yuvraj's problem is two fold. It has to come at a certain speed at certain height and at certain direction for him to play pull shots. If not he would either awkwardly duck while playing the pull shot or get hit on the body. Seen so many times. Viru was not good against short balls. But he has improved dramatically in recent times. Gauti's height is somewhat a plus to him. He is able to control the shots against bouncer much better than in early part of his career. He slashes over the point if it on or around off stump. If it is on the middle he rocks back and pulls it over midwicket. He has still not exhibited his ability to play hook but he negotiates far better when the ball comes at his face.

[The Outsider]

The prevalence of the front foot pull shot in the modern game, primarily a result of the patta ODI surfaces has given us a bunch of players who are downright horrible against the short pitch bowling. It's not just limited to Indian players either, even a lot of players from other countries have got terrible techniques against the short ball. They'll be alright as long as it's a waist high short ball and they can pull it off the front foot. Anything higher and you'll find them in trouble. In the context of limited overs, Karthik is probably the most assured in his hooking and pulling - actually moves to get inside the line of the ball. The rest are all well.....meh.... In tests Sehwag, Gambhir, and Dhoni are reasonably adept in the sense that they won't get out to it often.

[patriot]

Yuvraj's problem is mindset. IN an attacking frame, he is the best puller and hooker in the Indian team and at par with Adam Gilchrist, he can even pull good length deliveries. Sure, he can be surprised by bouncer and get into an awkward position, but that is true for any player. I don't think, I have seen a better pull shot player in the INdian team than Yuvraj, and that includes the old hands. I distinctly remember how when he started on early in his career in 2000 in the champions trophy Mcgrath, Lee and Co tried to bounce him, even so early in his career he was a brutal pull shot player. He gave the same treatment to Allan Donald in that tournament as well as the 2002 Champions trophy.

[vvvslaxman]

Funny thing is when you start playing cricket pull shot is the most natural shot for everyone. You want to hit everything on the on side. So when bowlers bowl short you gleefully accept it. Over period they just lose touch with Pull shots.

[zen]

From what I have seen, I would say Karthik has a slight edge over others. Some of the others are good at handling the short stuff well in a sense that they won't get out to it, duck or having some kind of a scoring stroke for e.g. Viru's trademark shots where he guides the short ball over slips. And then some of them are extremely poor From that list, if I have to club them in no particular order: Good / Decent: Karthik, Viru, GG and Dhoni Poor: Raina, Yuvi, YP, Rohit Not Observed: Kohli

[vvvslaxman]

Yuvraj's problem is mindset. IN an attacking frame, he is the best puller and hooker in the Indian team and at par with Adam Gilchrist, he can even pull good length deliveries. Sure, he can be surprised by bouncer and get into an awkward position, but that is true for any player. I don't think, I have seen a better pull shot player in the INdian team than Yuvraj, and that includes the old hands. I distinctly remember how when he started on early in his career in 2000 in the champions trophy Mcgrath, Lee and Co tried to bounce him, even so early in his career he was a brutal pull short player. He gave the same treatment to Allan Donald in that tournament as well as the 2002 Champions trophy.

Problem is hook shot when the ball is at his body and around his face. His height enables him to pull which would have been a hook shot for say Gauti. But if a bowler can extract a little more bounce he gets into awkward position and he shut his eyes and turns his face. That is why i said he can play those shots only against certain kind of deliveries. He can even pull length balls coz ball doesn't rise much.

[vvvslaxman]

From what I have seen, I would say Karthik has a slight edge over others. Some of the others are good at handling the short stuff well in a sense that they won't get out to it, duck or having some kind of a scoring stroke for e.g. Viru's trademark shots where he guides the short ball over slips. And then some of them are extremely poor From that list, if I have to club them in no particular order: Good / Decent: Karthik, Viru, GG and Dhoni Poor: Raina, Yuvi, YP, Rohit Not Observed: Kohli

Rohit, Kohli, Uthappa more or less the same. Uthappa probably is slightly better. Irfan is also not terrible. But i like Shikar Dhawan's pull shots though he is also another front foot puller he looks to have somewhat better control

[Serani]

There is nothing wrong with the front foot pull if you can execute, Ponting used to always play it and never get out until these days with his reflexes slowing.

[vvvslaxman]

There is nothing wrong with the front foot pull if you can execute' date=' Ponting used to always play it and never get out until these days with his reflexes slowing.[/quote'] Watson also plays front foot pull shots. McCullum gets well inside line and also he retrenches himself back into the crease while playing pull or hook.

[thevortex]

Yes Serani - the problem is not with the front foot pull. The issue is when guys like Kohli try and play it. The secret to the front foot pull shot is that the front foot is just a rudder to be lifted and swivelled off at the moment you make contact with the ball. All your weight has to be on the backfoot. With Indian players when they move forward they also shift weight because that is ingrained. But in such a scenario a front foot pull shot is not possible - not unless the ball is at knee height :). By the way, Yuvraj is tremendously weak at the pull shot. He is generally not comfortable with fast bowling directed at the body. Most importantly he closes his eyes when playing short balls. So he rarely gets into line. Anything below the chest though, he has a good chance. But then those are not proper short balls anyway. Even a pull-abstainer like Sehwag could play shots at balls of such height.

[King Tendulkar]

These sterotypes just fuel the crappy sterotype that we can't play pace and the short ball. We have not gone in to a time machine and stepped in to the 80s. We are No 1 in the world in Tests. No 2 in odis! So if we can't play the short ball god knows what the rest of the world are like. Look at England whop get regularly massacred in Aus, no one says they can't play short stuff. And the amount of times Ponting gets out to short stuuf is remarkable, as well as aussies. But when they get out to short stuff its great bowling, when we do its some massive weakness. Nasser idiot Hussain even as England captain tried to implement a plan of bombarding us with short balls when we toured England, he failed as we held the trophy. They have not won a test series against us in over a decade. Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Gambhir are as good as world cricket gets against short ball and any other ball. No idea why you want to exclude them from short ball analysis? Why don't we analyse Aussie second string against short bowling? Cos does not fit crappy sterotypes. Vijay , Karthick, Dhoni and Kohli also have no issues against short ball imo and are tip top against it. So thats NINE top clas performers against this short ball steortype!

[King Tendulkar]

Collingwood brutal against short ball. What you smoking?? McCullum brutal???? He just takes the short ball on like an idiot and gets out to it as many times as he nails it. Mcullum needs to learn to duck! Hughes of aus can't play short ball to save his life and opens for Aus. Now thats a worry!!! Sorry still laughing that Collingwood is brutal against short ball:hysterical:

[Sir john]

i think dravid is good.

[vvvslaxman]

Collingwood brutal against short ball. What you smoking?? McCullum brutal???? He just takes the short ball on like an idiot and gets out to it as many times as he nails it. Mcullum needs to learn to duck! Hughes of aus can't play short ball to save his life and opens for Aus. No thats a worry!!! Sorry still laughing that Collingwood is brutal against short ball:hysterical:

Ignorance all the way through the post. Plz do not pollute this thread like you did with you ignorant posts in God vs Bradman threads.