How do you perpare yourself for bouncy wicket

[Roshanrocks]

Set up 5 fielders near square leg and fine leg. Then ask the bowling machine to bowl 150+ kph and short of length. Ask each player to smack at lest 500 of those deliveries for a week and then see how natural it becomes. Bloody training is what we need.

Only Sachin is capable of such training :(( The others am not so sure...

[Jersey #10]

Only Sachin is capable of such training :(( The others am not so sure...

Dude, 500 balls is the least one can practice in a day. They should go through rugged training for a month before the world cup instead of playing the lame IPL. At the end of the day you are playing for the national pride. It pisses me off when Dhoni says that such and such does not come to us naturealy. Well, you weren't born with a bat in your hand dhoni...you made your self climb the mountain for the love for the game and now you are saying that you can't practice short ball enough to win a game? it's been more than a year since the whole world knows that indians can't play short balls. YP is utter crap against short balls and what amazes me is that he is freaking tall. Hayden used to crash those shorter ones using his height

[thevortex]

have a net on concrete

Just using a normal leather ball on concrete will mean almost no bounce. Not very helpful in this case.

[SJS50]

Just using a normal leather ball on concrete will mean almost no bounce. Not very helpful in this case.

Thats right. Batting on concrete reinforces front foot play. You need to bat on wickets where the ball comes up. Batting on matting does help. Coir matting on 'bajri' (red gravel) does make for very good batting wickets where batsmen are encouraged to go back. But the most important thing is to 'teach' young players how to play off the backfoot. Everyone who learns to play cricket seems to have no problem playing of the front foot - irrespective of what wicket they play on. This is because the coaches nowadays are not spending much time on teaching youngsters how to go back on to their stumps and play the ball "off the wicket". This is sad because good backfoot player is what separates the good from great amongst the batsmen. In the sub-continent, the wickets being slow and loaded in favour of the batsmen we are getting more and more front-foot dominance. Hence the problem of openers in general from both Pakistan and India. On top of that, the excess of limited over cricket at every level has meant even more batsman friendly conditions so most domestic cricket does not expose these deficiencies amongst our batsmen. Playing amongst the sub-continent teams further boosts these batsmen's "fake notions" about their own greatness. It is impossible to convince Yuvraj that he is not just one good innings away from becoming a regular in the Indian Test line up. Then they go to South Africa and they get exposed. Or they come across the odd fast bowler friendly wicket and a couple of fiery bowlers and we see the fiasco. This is where the kind of remarks Dhoni made, in defense of his teams obvious deficiencies, appear so out of place and are so very unfortunate. He could easily have said, "we are really not good enough to face short fast bowling on even slightly bowler friendly conditions" instead of pointing to the Indian wicket conditions as a justification for the batting deficiencies. How come the batsmen from the South and many from Mumbai are so much better at playing the short pitched delivery than those from rest of India? Where is the answer to this? The answer lies in the type of coaching you get. In the South and in Mumbai, you still have traditional coaching and matches even between schools in Mumbai are held over days (not 40 or 50 overs). Thus there ia a tradition of teaching youngsters the value of an all round game not just a "pair bahar nikalo aur laga do" stuff that the boys from the North are bringing. There are exceptions amongst both but the point is still valid. It is possible to learn to play off the backfoot in any country. All you need is the right emphasis from those who are teaching and the right attitude from those like Dhoni (who is a smart guy) to call a spade a spade because his voice will carry weight. One can understand the need to be diplomatic and not lambast the players in public but there is nothing wrong in saying things like "our fast bowling is not good enough" or our batsmen need to improve a lot in their technique against fast stuff on bowler friendly conditions. He must be in a dilemma since he himself is exposed but it is good for the long term health of the game to admit to our weaknesses for no one is even going to start thinking of taking corrective actions if we keep burying our heads in the proverbial sand.

[vvvslaxman]

Tendulkar often visits chennai for practicing on fast pitch. Not the chepauk one. MRF Pace academy has fast, bouncy wickets. Even Sidhu used to go very often when he was playing. Parthiv patel is good against short stuffs coz he got trained in Australia through some scholarship programme. Among the current crop (one that are there already) Karthik, Dhoni, Rohit are good. Other than that Kohli, Uthappa are good. Vijay is good too. Just that he has the problem with corridor of uncertainty deliveries.

[thevortex]

I agree, SJS. vvslaxman - Actually Parthiv Patel tries to whip the short ball instead of swivelling with the stroke and try to keep it down. I would rate him as an average player against pace bowling.

[SJS50]

Tendulkar often visits chennai for practicing on fast pitch. Not the chepauk one. MRF Pace academy has fast, bouncy wickets. Even Sidhu used to go very often when he was playing. Parthiv patel is good against short stuffs coz he got trained in Australia through some scholarship programme. Among the current crop (one that are there already) Karthik, Dhoni, Rohit are good. Other than that Kohli, Uthappa are good. Vijay is good too. Just that he has the problem with corridor of uncertainty deliveries.

Uthappa is not very good against short pitched stuff from really fast bowlers. There is a massive difference when the speed goes up. We see the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Yousuf Pathan pulling off the front foot when the short pitched ball is from a medium pacer. This is very difficult to do against a fast bowler. Uthappa too is naturally inclined to play off the front foot. Of course he doesn't face real fast stuff most of the time but his technique is not very promising in this respect.

[Precambrian]

By conjuring up some illness before the match, if you're a subcontinental batsman and your name is not Sachin Tendulkar.

[Precambrian]

Uthappa is not very good against short pitched stuff from really fast bowlers. There is a massive difference when the speed goes up. We see the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Yousuf Pathan pulling off the front foot when the short pitched ball is from a medium pacer. This is very difficult to do against a fast bowler. Uthappa too is naturally inclined to play off the front foot. Of course he doesn't face real fast stuff most of the time but his technique is not very promising in this respect.

I agree on your views on Uthappa (Hard not to almost always!) But Uthappa has a unique way of countering such deliveries by walking a few steps down the pitch, and playing the front foot pull as the bounce would be negated to some extent by that. True, it's a difficult thing to pull off against someone bowling at over 150 and requires quicksilver foot work and incredible bat swing speed, but I've seen him pull that off against genuine quicks like Lee, Johnson etc.

[Jai Ho]

practice practice practice!!! :cantstop:

[Ranjha]

You prepare yourself for bouncy wicket by getting sick on the day of the match.

[Temujin Khaghan]

Gambhir's wicket seemed to be due to his desire to prove a point against short ball more than anything else. Basically error in judgement.

not just gambhir, even raina's wicket was due to fact that his ego had to satisfied in pulling a fast bouncer to the boundary. had they just ran singles... got settled and opened up a little later then maybe we would have had more wickets towards the end. but then again we were chasing, so there is always gonna be some pressure on the batsmen to hit shots.

[SJS50]

practice practice practice!!! :cantstop:

If you keep practicing the wrong shot (playing everything off the front foot irrespective of length) it might be a better idea to stay away from such practice :-)

[achilles]

This thread is awesome.

[gaurav92]

Well i can see some local Cricketers here that they practice on concrete pitches with tennis balls, and plastic balls and ask some of the bowlers to throw at them at good pace, and they either duck them or they pull/hook it.The coach sees it like an umpire from that end, and analyzes what is wrong with the boy.This has been an extremely successful session in our locality. But there are some drawbacks in this method : 1) The ball used in training, being of a lighter weight, players find it much easier to face since there is no fear of them getting injured with the helmet on. 2) The batsman knows that the bounce will be even, there won't be much difference in the bounce since the ball is a tennis ball and the pitch is firm and hard of concrete, whereas on the cricket pitch,the bounce will be variable for different bowlers, bowling different lengths, some balls may take off from length, while some others stay down even if they are half trackers. 3) The Bowler running in and disguising the slower bouncer will be hard to handle if the batsman has not read it well.While practicing the slower ball bouncers on a concrete pitch, the ball would have still been at a comfortable height to pull, but it is not while playing on the real pitch. These are some points that i can think of, but we really need to look in at this method to improve the pulling/hooking of the young guns.

[thevortex]

Gaurav - in my mind, it is a progression (facing up against shorter deliveries). You go from facing plastic balls on concrete to other methods and from there on to the match with the leather ball. It is just like having throw-downs or net sessions out there with all hope that this will add to your skills. Once you are out there it is completely different. It is more mental than anything else. Same is the case here. Yes, the plastic balls, the bounce, the bowlers - nothing is going to be common with these practice tactics and the match per se. But then you can never ever bring home match conditions no matter how hard you try. You just do your best with practice and keep on learning. Your learning as a cricketer does NOT stop with the nets. The best cricketers learn on the field during a match - even against the topmost cricketing opponents (read exponents) of the game.

[vvvslaxman]

Well i can see some local Cricketers here that they practice on concrete pitches with tennis balls, and plastic balls and ask some of the bowlers to throw at them at good pace, and they either duck them or they pull/hook it.The coach sees it like an umpire from that end, and analyzes what is wrong with the boy.This has been an extremely successful session in our locality. But there are some drawbacks in this method : 1) The ball used in training, being of a lighter weight, players find it much easier to face since there is no fear of them getting injured with the helmet on. 2) The batsman knows that the bounce will be even, there won't be much difference in the bounce since the ball is a tennis ball and the pitch is firm and hard of concrete, whereas on the cricket pitch,the bounce will be variable for different bowlers, bowling different lengths, some balls may take off from length, while some others stay down even if they are half trackers. 3) The Bowler running in and disguising the slower bouncer will be hard to handle if the batsman has not read it well.While practicing the slower ball bouncers on a concrete pitch, the ball would have still been at a comfortable height to pull, but it is not while playing on the real pitch. These are some points that i can think of, but we really need to look in at this method to improve the pulling/hooking of the young guns.

But it will still develop an instinct to get into position instead of crouching, weaving in a rather ugly way. It is a pathetic sight. It is almost as embarrassing as we looked against Mendis.

[gaurav92]

But it will still develop an instinct to get into position instead of crouching' date=' weaving in a rather ugly way. It is a pathetic sight. It is almost as embarrassing as we looked against Mendis.[/quote'] Yup.It will definitely help to at least do something better than just whacking the ball or should i say, trying to whack a ball closing the eyes ;)

[Precambrian]

I don't know why these guys can't try the bend-back uppercut which Sachin and Sehwag use so proficiently. Sachin negated Tait, Johnson etc with that shot alone in our last tour to Australia. Bend backs are perhaps bit difficult for taller guys to play, but shorter ones like Raina, Gambir can surely use it. I am so worried how Gambir looked like the proverbial deer in headlights against short ball yesterday. He simply had no clue whether to duck, pull or just knock it down. It's puzzling considering he was playing the pull quite well in 08 in Aus as well as in India. And what is the role of our head coach Kirsten in this? Surely he had an opportunity to witness first hand this flaw in last year's world cup, and it seems whatever he has done to address that, if any, has not been enough.

[gaurav92]

I don't know why these guys can't try the bend-back uppercut which Sachin and Sehwag use so proficiently. Sachin negated Tait, Johnson etc with that shot alone in our last tour to Australia. Bend backs are perhaps bit difficult for taller guys to play, but shorter ones like Raina, Gambir can surely use it. I am so worried how Gambir looked like the proverbial deer in headlights against short ball yesterday. He simply had no clue whether to duck, pull or just knock it down. It's puzzling considering he was playing the pull quite well in 08 in Aus as well as in India. And what is the role of our head coach Kirsten in this? Surely he had an opportunity to witness first hand this flaw in last year's world cup, and it seems whatever he has done to address that, if any, has not been enough.

Gambhir did well because the Aussies and lankans were bowling just above the waist and below the shoulder level which is easy to pull, but what Windies fast bowlers bowled yesterday was lethal on the body,m nearly took off batsman's face.So he isn't sure about the ball which is directed at his face.Also to say that this is T20, he hasn't got the liberty to leave,duck balls, while in ODIs down under, he could do so.