Eye on the ball

Changing a habit of a lifetime can be a daunting task. For most of the 3 decades that I have been playing cricket I have been batting with a particular grip, stance and foot movement. With time I have noticed that my reflexes are not what they used to be. Consequently I cannot work the ball around with as much ease as I used to.

This season I made a conscious decision to change the way I played. I religiously watched all the cricket I could, all the while focusing on what the batsmen were doing to be able to hit the shots they did. Laxman, Sehwag and Pietersen are exciting to watch but difficult to emulate. Tendulkar is almost always in balance but has not been at the crease long enough for me to pick up tips from. So I have been studying the two batsmen who are leading from the front these days - Dravid and Ponting.

Surprisingly, these two are not that dissimilar in their technique. But their mental make-up separates them. Ponting looks to attack and take the battle to the other camp. Dravid looks to play himself him and then expand his repertoire. In the end, a long innings by both of them invariably ensures a victory for the team.

So armed with the knowledge I have gained, I have been changing my batting style. It has been a slow process but it is not the first time I have revamped my style of play. A few years ago, while golfing, I decided to change from an overlapping grip to an interlocking one and during the transition my golf scores shot way up. But now I am a much better player and shoot lower scores. This memory is what I fall back upon everytime I get my feet into a tangle and get out in practice.

My teammates have been trashtalking and ridiculing my batting these past few weeks but they do not know that I am going through these changes. My captain, SC, knows what I am doing and the two of us (along with AV) have been putting in extra time working on the position of my feet when I drive the ball.

This evening for a couple of hours SC, AV and I batted while one of us threw the ball at the batsman. My muscles are starting to memorize the new style of play and it is starting to come. Towards the end of the throwdown session, for the first time that I can recall, I did not have to remind myself how to move my bat and feet when the ball came my way - I just moved on my own! Our season starts this coming weekend and I cannot wait to see how effective my new technique is going to be in a real match.

I will not have to wait long - after all I am the team's opening batsman!