Top 5 innovative measures used by batsmen
Cricket is a game of glorious uncertainties and it’s very difficult to predict the outcome of a match before the last ball is bowled. Once upon a time cricket was a “Gentleman’s game” but now with the advent of T20 cricket the mindset of cricketers have changed totally. They try to think out of the box to unsettle their opposition and try to innovate new things to come out triumphant.
Over the years we have witnessed many great cricketers who with their innovative ideas have outwitted their opposition on several occasions. Playing at international level is itself a big challenge and it’s even more challenging to survive in those conditions.
Batsmen have come out with different innovative ideas to score runs and unsettle the opposition bowlers. Sometimes it’s really tough for a batsman to counter the bowlers when they are on song and it’s even more difficult for a batsman when he is out of form. For all these reasons batsmen have tried to do different things and change their game plan to unsettle the opposition bowlers.
Here we bring you 5 instances when a batsman used innovative ideas to counter the oppositions.
#5 When Sunil Gavaskar played as a left-hander
In the semi-final of the Ranji Trophy 1981-82, Sunil Gavaskar walked out as a left-hand batsman to counter the Karnataka left-arm spinner Raghuram Bhatt who was coiling webs around Bombay’s batsmen. He went to on to score an unbeaten 18 that saved Bombay from outright defeat.
Recalling one of the most unusual innings in his career, Gavaskar said, “The ball was turning square and Raghuram Bhat was pretty much unplayable on that surface. Since he was a left-hand orthodox spinner getting the ball to turn and bounce sharply away from the right-handers, I thought that the way to counter that was by playing left handed where the ball would turn and bounce but hit the body harmlessly (without the risk of getting out leg before wicket).”
“I could understand the adverse reactions”. “It was felt that it was done in pique, but it was nothing like that at all. I felt I had zero chance against Raghu batting right-handed, and since the match was already decided in Karnataka’s favour, I tried the tactic. If the match was in the balance, I certainly would not have batted left-handed. Also, please remember I batted left handed only against Raghuram Bhat. When a right-hand spinner (B Vijayakrishna) came along, I switched to batting right handed again.”Gavaskar added.