A deep dive into batting against spin

In junior cricket, it has long been understood that whilst talent scouts are excited by the hairy quick who is a bit more physically developed and can hurry up the batting with some extra pace and bounce, the winning and losing of carnivals and titles is in the slow bowling and the defensive fielding that so often results in batting collapse when the block/slog game plan fails. There simply is a better way to consistently perform.

When you stop and think about it, batting against spin can be broken down into component parts. The first is mindset. Typically the top order batsman who pride themselves on getting in behind the ball and being tight and tough against the quicks suddenly appear from the outside to lose their mind when the spin comes on and become loose and play adventurous shots outside their physical capabilities. The mindset of getting into position quickly and playing within a game plan is lost. The major contributing factor is lack of a sustainable game plan which is the impetus for this article.

There is a famous saying in football that we either have it, they have it or it is in dispute. Batting against spin is a bit the same. It is either spinning into the pads, spinning away from the pads or not spinning at all and you can construct your plan accordingly. When facing the ball spinning in from the off stump to the leg stump, the batsman should be attempting to be proactive. By proactive, I mean trying to either hit the ball on the full or play back. Standing still and stepping forward to defend is a mini loss.

When moving forward to endeavour to his the ball on the full, the batsman should take a large step to the line of the ball. The second step then is just to position the feet to hit the ball where the fielders aren't be that offside or leg side. No decision has yet been taken as to whether to be aggressive or defensive in strokeplay. This is major issue number one. I see far too many juniors who think if they advance they must hit a boundary. Incorrect. Moving feet is designed to get you in position. Only when in position should you then proceed with the big shot. If you get it wrong, you should defend as you would against the quicker bowlers.

When moving back (not just standing still), the batsman is trying to create a short ball for scoring opportunities. Again, the movement doesn't determine the shot. It positions the batsman to then watch the ball and either defend or hit the ball where the fielders aren't, often but not always with a cross bat and firm pressure with the bottom hand.

By consistently training this proactive approach, it will steadily become memorised by your motor memory and "happen" on gameday.

When facing the ball spinning away from you, the approach by necessity has to become more "cat and mouse". What this means is that you may come out of your crease but need to be more discerning about either getting to the ball on the full or nearly on the full. Being caught too far short of the ball runs a real risk of it spinning past the outside of the bat and getting stumped. It is much harder to use the legs as a second form of defence so hence the greater caution.

On the back foot however, there is many scoring opportunities so moving forward to pressure the bowler into a short ball is a "good play" in the long game. Trying to hit with the spin is a good move to prevent being caught and bowled off the leading edge and comes with practice.

There is a length in between being able to hit it on the full or nearly on the full and being able to get back safely to try and score. This is the good length and is actually the prime length to sweep. If junior players can learn how to get into position to sweep and how to control their bat whilst in the crouch position, they can really open up the 360 degrees of the field and spread the fielding unit as the sweep can be hit much finer and harder than any other shot. Learning the skill of sweeping should be in every junior's wishlist between the ages of 12 and 15.

Where the ball is not spinning at all, the biggest mistake a batsman can make is to look for something that is not there. If it is not spinning at all, the likelihood of being stumped almost disappears so the opportunity to be proactive both forward and back to place pressure on the bowlers line and length and to seek to score from most balls rather than blocking 4 and slogging 2 is the way to go. More energy and activity and less aggression to go big more often is the right game plan for the non spinning slow bowler. They are essentially hoping the batting will lack energy and be lazy. They hate fast feet and running between wickets as it renders them powerless.

I hope this is useful in conceiving of the plan of what to "try to do". A drill that is extremely useful to work out where you can get to on the full, what length you can get back to in order to score with a cross bat and what is the length in between to sweep to involves an extra pair of gloves. Put one glove beside the pitch on the length you can get to with a normal dance motion with no bowler bowling. Put another glove on the length you can get back to and pull/cut without feeling cramped. The challenge then with a bowler bowling is to make the right decision. Forward to the length you can "get to" on the full. Back to the length you can cut/pull. Sweep the length you can't do either to. As batsman become more advanced and taller (more reach), they should aspire to get to a "negative gap" whereby there is a small area they can either come forward to or go back to and there is no area the bowler can bowl that they can't move. This is utopia and part of the "search" even for batsman at first class level so don't expect that outcome in the early stages.

Remember - always train with a purpose. It is the pathway to improvement.