Never out of fashion

Bengaluru: Picture this. You’re watching a cricket match amid a gathering, and you instinctively yell ‘shot!’. You see the ball has gone straight to the fielder, and there is no run to be had. Still, the sentiment holds good because, often, a good shot isn’t always about the outcome; it’s about timing and the shape the batter holds, and when done right, you can even ignore placement.

Of course, the scoops, the reverse scoops, the upper-cuts, the switch-hits, and so on can elicit a similar reaction when done right. But the bliss of a textbook straight drive, a well-executed on-drive, the flow of a cover-drive, an on-top-of-the-bounce pull or cut, a shapely hook, a nonchalant flick or even a crisp defense will never run out of fashion.

This isn’t a prose on aesthetics, this is a homage to the fundamentals of batting, and how it will always remain relevant. This Indian Premier League season is an untainted reflection of that fact. 

Many insist the Twenty20 format has allowed the glorification of technique-deprived batters, and there’s certain truth to it because strike rate assumes kingly status, and it’s very hard to put away bowlers with the same frequency when you’re restricted to playing particular shots to certain lines and lengths even as the weight of an academic understanding of batting rests in your mind.

But, the moment the bowlers have assistance, textbook-assisted batters - boring as they might seem - pop out of the woodwork and become central figures to a team’s success.

It’s hard to imagine a season, in India at least, where bowlers have looked more threatening than this one, and a few things have contributed to this phenomenon. 

One, a few pitches - including the one at the M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru - have been tough to bat on. 

Two, the availability of a second new ball has allowed bowlers to mitigate the effects of dew. 

Three, the removal of the saliva ban has helped the maintenance of the ball, especially when it comes to instigating reverse swing. 

Four, and importantly so, bowlers have become much better at executing deliveries. 

Perhaps the last point is more of a confidence-based byproduct due to all the other factors, but it still takes skill to capitalise on slivers of hope, and they have.

These are the moments when the utility of a batting fundamentalist becomes irreplaceable. 

While they might seem slow off the blocks, not nearly as fun, a tad too clinical, they at least possess the basics to lean on when the going gets tough. 

Take KL Rahul’s epic from last week against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, for instance. Sure, he’s used to the surface in Bengaluru because he has played a majority of his cricket here, but the pitch has adopted a new characteristic of late. 

He now had a choice. Play with reckless abandon in a sticky chase, or dive into the fundamentals before putting Delhi Capitals in the right place for a seamless charge. 

Rahul took the Capitals from 58 for 4 to 169 for the victory without ever losing shape, and the quality of that unbeaten 93 from 53 balls can’t be quantified by numbers alone. That knock was visceral.  

The very next game, another Bengalurean relied on basics to put up a handsome score. Karun Nair’s cream-of-the-crop 89 from 40 balls wasn’t enough to give the Capitals a win against Mumbai Indians, but it sure did make a case for the continued validity of the textbook. 

“Yes, it is important to keep reinventing the game and finding ways to score at a quick pace, but I think these days, it’s about perception, who hits the most number of sixes and all of that, but if I tried to be that person, I don’t think I will be successful,” Karun tells DHoS. 

“You know, MS Dhoni told me this when we played CSK (Chennai Super Kings) recently. He told me ‘You’re not the guy who can hit three sixes in six balls and finish the game. You’re the guy who can hit three fours and a six in an over and win the game. The outcome is the same, but the mindset is different, so don’t try to be someone else’. That resonated with me, and so my knock against Mumbai was just about doing that.

“Basically, I am about the fundamentals and building on that. I can play other shots too, but this is what works for me,” he adds.  

Karun especially broke down the need to remain in shape at the point of delivery and on contact when up against some of the best bowlers in the world.

“See, when you’re playing someone like (Jasprit) Bumrah, he’s watching you till the last movement to see what the batter is positioning himself for. He then has the skill to adapt in that split second, and a lot of other bowlers at this level can do that,” he explains.

“What I try to do is remain in position until the ball is released, ensuring I don't reveal my intentions to the bowler. That way, he bowls what he primarily intended, and I get to react. It’s not as easy as it sounds, but that’s just basic cricket, the thing you would do in, say, Test cricket, and it works because patience even in this format goes a long way.”

Brad Haddin, Punjab Kings’ assistant coach, also spoke of how having the right fundamentals can allow you to free your mind when against tougher challenges. 

“The one thing you want to do when the conditions are different, you've got to trust your game,” he said. “Everyone will have different ways to get through that. Others will take the game on, hitting it in the air. Others will run hard. The most important thing is to understand your role in the game. We break it down for them so there’s clarity. Still, it’s important for the batters to know what their style is and play to their strengths.”

That’s the thing, it’s hard to tell if batters know what their strengths are anymore. They’ve all been disillusioned into believing that big sixes are the only way out. 

In RCB’s game against Punjab on Friday, the former was kept down to 95 for 9. Out of which, 50 were scored by Tim David. 

Could you hazard a guess as to how many of those nine scalps were because of batters’ ineptness? Even if you ignore the tail, it was seven pedestrian dismissals, each more baffling than the next.

Sure, the bowlers bowled well on a challenging surface, but there’s no excuse for poor shotmaking. If that wasn’t enough, the five wickets which Punjab lost in their victory were also because of the same ailment.

It’s nice to see bowlers getting rewarded for their efforts. If anything, it’s exactly what the sport needs at this moment because massive totals and historic chases have become passe. Small totals and tricky chases are certainly more fun. 

But none of these possibilities should occur at the cost of poor quality, least of all from batters, because they have the game tilting on its axis for them. Fundamentally.

KL Rahul (left) and his Delhi Capitals