http://content-www.cricinfo.com/talk/content/multimedia/351203.html?view=transcript Sanjay Manjrekar: Hello and welcome to the Cricinfo Round Table.
The Indian Premier League is only about a month old and it already feels like a whole new world. Though Twenty20 has been around for a few years now, this is only the second tournament in this form of the game but in terms of numbers the IPL is more than twice the size of the World Twenty20.
There has been enough talk about the money and the glamour of it. But we are also seeing some clear patterns emerging on how cricketers are adapting to this format. Since this is a game designed for furious run-making, the onus is on the batsmen to find new ways to score faster. To find out how they are coping, we have with us Kumar Sangakkara, who plays for Kings XI Punjab, and Greg Chappell, who has been watching the batsmen very closely from the commentary box. Welcome, gentlemen, to the Cricinfo Round Table.
Let me start with Sangakkara. You are an established international player with an average of over 50 in Test cricket. How has your experience been playing Twenty20?
Kumar Sangakkara: It was a mixed bag for me when I started playing Twenty20 cricket before the IPL. I probably made a lot of mistakes that a lot of batsmen can make in Twenty20 - trying to do too much too soon, hitting the ball too hard, thinking that it was all just wham-bam cricket.
I think I have matured a bit when it comes to Twenty20 cricket, playing in the IPL. I have understood that if you play good cricket shots - the shots that you already have - and execute them a bit better so that you get good value for your shots, you can actually get a lot of runs really quickly, playing proper cricket. Of course you need innovation at certain times but the base has to be what you have always been doing, the shots that you have developed over the years.
The experience has been fantastic. What has really impressed me is that the cricket being put on display has been of the highest quality. I think it is going to be really exciting for the future of other formats of the game, especially Test cricket.
Greg Chappell: Well, I think I would have to endorse everything that Kumar has said. I came into the IPL with an interested mind - to watch and see who adapted and who didn't adapt. It hasn't surprised me who the better players in the IPL, in the Twenty20 format, have turned out to be.
The main part of batting is the thought process that goes into it. And the thought processes are as important in 20-over cricket as they are in 50-over or Test cricket. The better players are the ones who are better prepared, who have better thought processes, and have a better range of options available to them once the ball is bowled.
Kumar said it is still very much about the basics of batting, and it is very much about executing shots - maybe with a bit more elevation and with a bit more power. But if you go in there trying to belt the ball with the thought that you have to get on with it and you start pre-determining what you are going to do, then you limit your options and you increase your chances of getting out.
If it was just about hitting, then someone like Shahid Afridi would be the best player in Twenty20 cricket. He is not, because he is not the best thinker. The later you can make your decision to play the shot in any form of cricket, they greater the chances of success. The better players are showing that.
SM: Well, Greg has just put forth the mental process of batsmen in Twenty20. Let us stick with that for a moment. How much of this is about freeing your mind, Sanga? Because you have grown up as a batsman who has been told not to get out. Here is a format of the game where if you worry too much about your wicket then maybe you won't have the kind of range you need, or you won't be able to score as quickly because some of the shots have to be high-risk. Martin Crowe talked recently about how you need to take the stumps out of the equation - not bother about getting bowled and things like that. So how much of it is just setting your mind free and not putting a price on your wicket?
It is about the freedom of the mind, the ability to remove yourself from the emotions of the situation, whatever the format ... If it was just about hitting, then someone like Shahid Afridi would be the best player in Twenty20 cricket. He is not, because he is not the best thinker
Greg Chappell
KS: I think it is all about that. I know that Greg believes very much in the mental side of the game and I am very much the same. What you call high-risk shots - if you train the right way and your thought process is 100% committed to executing those shots in training and then taking them into a game, then it doesn't remain a high-risk shot when you execute it right. It is a shot that you need to have absolute confidence in - your whole intent has to be to execute those shots well. When you do that and you have that positive thought process going and you have the mental confidence to cut out the risk in those shots and make it part of your normal shot repertoire, then "high-risk" doesn't apply.
It is, as Greg said, when you don't have the options that your shots become high-risk - when you try to do things you are not really used to. It is a really interesting position the players will find themselves in as they go on, where the mental side of the game will take over. The wickets are getting better, the bats are better, and lots of things are going for the players. To manage all that, you need to have a very balanced outlook.
GC: It is about the freedom of the mind, the ability to remove yourself from the emotions of the situation, whatever the format is. If you get caught up in who the bowler is or the situation of the game or what the conditions are like, then you won't be focused in the areas that you need to be focused on.
In any format, batting is about risk and reward. If you are not prepared to take the risk of getting out, you won't score runs. It is as simple as that. If you are scared to play a cover-drive or a square-cut or a pull shot or a hook shot or whatever else, then you are limiting your chances of scoring runs. I don't care what the situation of the game is or what the format is - if you are worried about getting out and if you are only thinking about survival then you miss scoring opportunities.
You need to understand what your scoring areas are. In the back of your mind, you have the areas that you will score in off this particular bowler. I put that away into the back of my mind. I don't necessarily think that I am going to hit this ball in that area, but having prepared myself mentally, if he bowls the ball into one of those areas then they are my boundary areas. If he doesn't get them in those areas, then I've got to make sure I hit it into a gap and get a one or a two or a three or whatever else. By doing that, you are keeping the odds in your favour.
So you are always taking risks as a batsman. You have to if you want to score runs. But it is about keeping the risks in your favour. If you take yourself out of your comfort zone and start trying to hit balls in areas that aren't your areas, then you are increasing the risk and putting it back in the bowler's favour and increasing your chances of getting out. The better players manage all of that. They manage the emotions. The better players have done that better than anyone else through the history of the game and it won't matter what the format is because that basic process still applies.
SM: That is a beautiful line: to manage your emotions. And emotions run high in Twenty20 cricket because it is such a short game. Greg, staying with you, what do you attribute the lack of success of players like Rahul Dravid and Jacques Kallis, or the fact that they haven't excelled as much as some of the other players?
GC: I would go back to, that phrase, "freedom of mind". I think what has happened is that they have allowed themselves to get, or got themselves, out of their comfort zone. We come back to that point - managing the emotions is a critical part of batting. If you start to fret about the situation - whatever it is, wherever it is or whatever format it is in - then you won't have that uncluttered mind that allows you to focus on the release of the ball. And if you are not focused on the release of the ball at the point of release, then you have increased your chances of getting out because you are not picking the ball until it is well on the way down, if at all.
SM: Greg, what about the physicality of the game? What if some batsmen just do not have the game or the physical ability to score quickly? They have grown up being slightly defensive players with a completely different mindset. Can they also adapt to Twenty20?
Kumar Sangakkara: 'The best way to approach bowlers like Shaun Pollock, who settle into a line and length, is to put them off their comfort zone' © Getty Images
GC: Absolutely. I would put myself in that situation when 50-over cricket started. I was totally out of my comfort zone as far as the way I had thought about batting up to that point went. It took me some time, some games, to realise that it was no different - that the basics of it were no different from Test cricket.
I had always picked my areas. I knew, whichever bowler was bowling and whatever the conditions of the wicket were, where my scoring opportunities were and I was prepared to wait until they bowled balls into that area. What I had to do was speed up the process for 50-over cricket, and the same thing is obviously happening for these guys in 20-over cricket. I had to be prepared to take more risks, maybe play shots that I wouldn't have played in the Tests - and still wouldn't have even after playing 50-over cricket, in some senses.
But I have seen Dravid score quickly in 50-over cricket. I have seen Kallis score quickly. They can do it. The physicality is not their problem. It is the mindset, and they should free themselves from this fear - not in the sense of physical fear but an emotional fear, if you like - of getting out of that comfort zone because they do have areas where they can score quickly.
You cannot get away from the emotions. You can never divorce yourself or be removed from the emotions. It comes back to that point that I made: management of emotions is critical to being a successful batsman.
SM: Kumar, we have seen batsmen in the IPL and two key elements come out. One, batsmen are trying to create space to hit boundaries and score quicker than they normally do. And two, they try and get under the ball to get maximum runs. Shane Watson makes room to play on the leg side and Ross Taylor tries to get under the ball or get outside the off stump to get inside the line. Are these adjustments imperative to score quickly?
KS: I think it is about getting the bowlers to bowl to the areas where you are looking to score runs. Greg makes the point very well - you pick your areas, you know where you are going to get your boundaries. The key, then, is to get the bowler to bowl as many balls as possible into your areas. If that means taking a step to the off or a step to the leg or a couple of steps forward, it doesn't matter, as long as you are making the bowler think to your advantage. That is why all batsmen move around or come at the bowler or whatever. It is about getting the bowler to bowl into the areas that you know you can score the most runs in.
SM: Can a batsman score by just staying in line?
KS: Of course you can, but at the same time the bowlers are thinking the same way you do most of the time: how easy is it to score runs off me? The best example would be Shaun Pollock. He loves to settle down to a line and length, and most of the time as a batsman it is difficult to really force too much or try to do too many things after he gets into his stride, because then he will be in his comfort zone. I think the best way to approach some of those bowlers is to put them off their comfort zone and make them do things that they are not really prepared for or things that they don't really like doing.
SM: When Twenty20 was introduced, the allegation was that there is nothing there for the bowlers and it is a batsman's game. But if you have seen what has happened in the last few months, it seems like the batsmen are more under pressure than the bowlers, because the batsmen have to score at almost one and a half runs per ball as the asking-rates are usually up to eight or nine per over. Do you feel that the batsmen are generally under more pressure? A bowler conceding more than nine or ten runs an over just shakes his head and people understand that.
KS: I would still rather be a batsman than a bowler in this game. It is about the thought process; it is about how much pressure you want to put yourself under. It is about how you are thinking about your game and how you mentally apply yourself to this format. In this format if you have to score 15 runs an over for the last two-three overs, you are still backing yourself because it is possible. You are still confident when you have batsmen out in the middle that they will do it because when you apply yourself and you have your shots, you have the chance to score huge amounts of runs. It is amount being mentally confident in your game, freeing yourself enough to express yourself fully. And sometimes being reactive is the best way to play most forms of cricket. You do your thinking outside, you go and you think between overs, but when the ball is there to be hit, your body reacts.
SM: Are you doing something different as a batsman and are all the other batsmen also doing likewise?
KS: I get a lot of confidence from my training. My training process is the same, but if I play a drive, I now practise playing the drive along the ground; and I try hitting it over mid-off or try and hit a six off the same ball. So I would try and practice three different forms of the shot. I just try and fine-tune my practice process to what I would face in the middle, and when I go out there, if I have done my practice right, I carry that confidence with me. Mentally, I know I can do the same thing out there.
SM: Greg, how would you have approached this challenge of playing in a Twenty20? I'm sure you have given it a thought.
GC: I have and I think I would have enjoyed it. It would have been a great challenge.
What you finish up doing is expanding your shot repertoire. Increasingly, the art of batting is about increasing the size of your scoring areas to make it harder for the bowler. You can do that in a number of ways. Basically, in Test cricket - up until the introduction of 50-over cricket - it was very much what we would call classical footwork. It was about getting well forward, getting well back, getting in line, getting alongside the line - whatever you needed to do for that particular shot. It's not really much different now, though the pressure is on to score more runs per over and score them quickly.
I am quite excited by what I can take into Test cricket with the thinking that I have developed playing Twenty20 cricket. I think if I increase my shot repertoire and my scoring opportunities, it will give me a lot more options to score a lot more runs
Kumar Sangakkara
It's exactly as Kumar described it: you practise as you want to play. If you look at the various players, they all have their different styles, but what they are doing is trying to change the length or the line of the ball to suit their hitting areas. You have someone like Matthew Hayden who tends to walk towards the bowlers. He walks straight at them and that changes their length and their mindset immediately. It does put a lot of pressure on him but why he succeeds - along with the other good players who succeed - is that at the point of release he still has the widest possible range of options available to him. He may well have made some pre-determination but it's not a final commitment. I think that is the fun of batting.
That's why I would have loved to have the challenge of batting in Twenty20 cricket. I was never considered to be a big hitter, but I still believe that I could have scored quickly. I might not have hit it as far as some of the other guys, but I still got it in the gaps and I still got it into areas where I could make runs.
Just one point, going back to your question to Kumar about the bowling and the pressure. Well, I think there is pressure on both the batsmen and the bowlers. The interesting thing for me is watching how the bowlers have adapted. I think they have adapted, and many of them have adapted quite well. All of this will flow back into 50-over cricket and into Test cricket. We're just seeing the progression of the game and the evolution of the game, which once again pinpoints what a fascinating game cricket is. There are very few sports around that could have three distinct formats like cricket has.
SM: Final question, gentlemen: how do you think Twenty20 cricket is going to change batting when it comes to Test cricket? I will leave 50-over cricket out of the way - I am really concerned about the future of that format in the next two or three decades. Let's start with you Kumar.
KS: I think I am quite excited by what I can take into Test cricket with the thinking that I have developed playing Twenty20 cricket. I think if I increase my shot repertoire and my scoring opportunities, it will give me a lot more options to score a lot more runs, especially with the attacking fields that are set nowadays in Test cricket. I think scoring-rates will hopefully go up in Test cricket, and at the same time we will see batsmen exploiting the thinking and the shots that they have developed in Test cricket. I think that will be a wonderful spectacle for everyone. The batsmen will now carry a new form of confidence where they aren't afraid to go that little bit extra to score runs; they will now be able to dominate in a new kind of way.
I think fast bowlers and spinners will develop a lot more variety in their attack, even in Test cricket. We could see many new deliveries being developed. Bowlers could have three to four different slower balls in their armoury. Slower bouncers could come in. We could have different fields being set. I think all of this will come into Test cricket, but the most important thing will be that the thought process will be fine-tuned in such a way that there will be a lot more positivity and a lot more energy being put into Test cricket.
GC: I agree. I think the greatest benefit will be the freeing of the mind for batsmen and bowlers and captains. The fascinating thing for me in the IPL is that so far, some of the bowlers who have perhaps been treated with a great deal of respect are, all of a sudden, not being treated with the same respect, and players are scoring runs against them in ways that in the past they wouldn't have thought possible. It will have an impact and I think most of it will be positive.
SM: Well, we have been fortunate to have two brilliant minds on batting in this edition of the Cricinfo Round Table. I am delighted to discover that the Twenty20 is not as frivolous as a lot of people thought it would be. There is still place for specialist batsmen and bowlers and you still need to have a good, sound mind to excel in this format. As Greg mentioned, management of emotions is the key to succeeding in Twenty20 cricket.
AuthorTopic: Another excellent read from Cricinfo ( The website) - Gurus talk on T20 (Read 1019 times)
July 10, 2006, 07:51:40 PM