LEAVING ON LENGTH

Back in the 1980’s when the WACA pitch was at its quickest a despondent NSW team was about to play a match against Western Australia, for the visitors the WACA was as alien to them as it is for sub-continent players. To ensure the NSW succeeded on the bouncy track the coach asked his players before the training session to leave as many balls as possible. The whole point of exercise was the coach wanted the batsman to leave the ball on length.  This meant lot of the balls on good length, were allowed to pass through to the keeper.  This radical exercise ensured the batsman had the correct mindset and were content on leaving the ball so they didn’t get caught behind the wicket.

Before the start of the West Indies tour MS Dhoni might have claimed “the Australia tour is too far ahead” but there is a key element of batting technique some of his young batsman need to work on at least in the nets before the ship sets sail for Australia.

Former and the current batsman have built their success by mastering the art of leaving the ball. It is technique that is not taught and rightly so as it takes each individual own judgment to develop the skill. Players such as Dravid and Gavaskar were perfect examples on which ball to leave outside the off stump. Aakash Chopra, the former Indian batsman has quoted “for a batsman there is equal satisfaction in leaving a good ball and driving one through the covers”.  Knowing which ball to leave is decision based on two main aspects line and length.

Leaving on line is skill that is accomplished a lot easier by Indian batsman. The likes of Virat Kholi, Yuvraj, Rohit Sharma and Raina are able to adjust their shots if they misjudge the line of a delievery on Indian conditions, this is because there is lack of pace off the wicket. This also works to their advantage as the players have learned to play the ball late of the wicket and use their hands to guide the ball. This technique is exposed on faster pitches such as Australia, South Africa and England. The English tour was a perfect example where lot of the youngsters in the one-dayers or tests were troubled and caught behind the wicket.  

In England it was the movement and bounce that troubled the batsman. Australian pitches wouldn’t have same amount of movement as England but will definitely have more bounce. This is where the art of leaving on length becomes vital to learn.

Duncan Fletcher should already been asking the Rohit Sharma and Kholi’s to watch tapes of Mark Taylor batting at the WACA or Matthew Hayden at the GABBA. The number of times both Taylor and Hayden  leave the ball that passes over off-stumps is a feature of their batting. The quicker the players realize a ball pitching 7m to 8m to the stumps will pass over the stump the easier batting will get in Australia. Even deliveries that pitch on the 7m to 8m that jag back sharply should be left comfortably on length.

Due to the true bounce of the Australian wickets the art of leaving on length is often easier to put into practice. The bounce is consistent and the bounce can be trusted by the batsman unlike other conditions.  The guide down to third man is such an effective scoring area on the slow low wickets but on quicker wickets that shot needs to be replaced by a leave outside off stump or the batsman will risk getting caught behind the wicket.  It is a principle that needs to be set into the youngsters mind before then land in Australia.

Sachin Tendulkar has always had his unique methods as part of training before a foreign tour, it may be worthwhile the likes of Kholi, Rahane, Rohit and Gambhir practice on concrete pitches and get practice on leaving the ball rather than following it with their hands. It is skill that needs to be prepared in the mind.

If a state team in the 80’s was able to take up such an approach there is no reason to believe why an international team cannot have a similar approach. If the younger players can land in Australia and have the mindset of “leave the ball” that is not going to hit the stumps and cut out the fancy dabs down to third man or behind point they similar to NSW team would have won half the battle at least in their mind.