As the saying goes, Indians have an old habit of fixing their door locks when a neighbour has a break-in. Something similar is happening in cricket. Before we get into what special strategies the Indian cricket team is working on for the England tour, we need to examine a match. The Indian batsmen took a direct lesson from the disastrous results for the Pakistan team in the match in Leeds earlier this month. The Test match ended in three days.
Pakistan's batsmen looked like college players against the English fast bowlers. In the first innings, Pakistan were bowled out for 174 runs. James Anderson, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad took 3 wickets each.
Thereafter, England scored 363 runs in their first innings. Pakistan needed a little more than 189 runs to force England back on the pitch for batting. Unfortunately, in the second innings, the English bowlers made short work of the Pakistani batsmen yet again.
Pakistan only managed 134 runs in second innings. Seven of Pakistan's batsmen couldn’t even reach double figures. James Anderson, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad took 6 wickets together in the second innings.
Since Pakistan won the first Test match, the series was drawn 1-1. But this defeat of Pakistan has alerted the Indian team. The Indian batsmen started working on their batting immediately.
The Weight of the Bat Hides the Real Story
There is a common understanding in the game of cricket that playing a heavy bat on fast pitches is a losing deal. This is the exact mistake the Pakistani batsmen made. A difference of split seconds in reaction time when facing a fast ball is what cost the batsmen heavily. Now, this is a mistake the Indian batsmen won’t repeat.
Many Indian batsmen are working on a strategy to use light bats on the England tour. When the Indian team steps out on the field, the weather will be cold. In cold weather, England’s pitches will favour seam bowlers.
The swing of the bat on such pitches will be good and effective only when a light bat is used. Implementation of this strategy has already begun. One of the first batsmen to lose weight on the bat is Shikhar Dhawan. He has reduced the weight of his bat by 20 grams.
Shikhar Dhawan's bat used to weigh 1163 grams, which has now been reduced to 1143 grams. For this, the opening batsman specifically went to the bat-making factory of a famous company in Meerut. Along with reducing the weight of the bat, he has also made some changes to the bat’s handle.
Reportedly, before going to England, many other Indian batsmen are also going to get lighter bats from Meerut, including names like Dinesh Karthik and Lokesh Rahul.
Tendulkar Too Had Reduced the Weight of His Bat
It was the year 2004. The Indian team travelled to England to play the Natwest Trophy and Champions Trophy. It was during that tour that news of Sachin Tendulkar’ tennis elbow first came out. At that time, the common man didn’t even know what this ailment was. Anyway, Sachin Tendulkar was off the cricket pitch for a long time.
When he returned after that, he had changed his bat, reducing its weight. After that injury, not only did Sachin Tendulkar continue playing for nearly a decade, but he also played some of the finest innings.
The Indian team will play a T20 series against Ireland from 27 June before taking on England in a T20, ODI and Test series.
The Test series will start after three ODIs against England. The first match of the Test series is to be played in Birmingham on 1 August. The remaining Test matches will be played in London, Nottingham and Southampton. In total, the Indian team is scheduled to play five Tests. The special preparations by Indian batsmen regarding the weight of their bats is focused on getting ready for the Test series.
(Shivendra Kumar Singh is freelance sports journalist. He has covered two Olympic Games, 3 cricket World Cups, Asian Games and many sports events across the world.)
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