Top five hard-hitting batsmen in modern-day cricket

With the advent of T20, the game of cricket has changed a great deal. The orthodox, technically correct batsman whose primary concern was to execute a well-timed shot between two fielders has been displaced by the innovative, modern batsman who is not concerned with placement any more, but muscles the ball out of the ground. While some purists may consider this a flaw that has crept into the game, there is a lot of skill and practice that goes into such an effort. Plus it may be argued that such shot-making is often born out of circumstances which emerge more and more with the shortening length of the game.

The counter argument, however, will be that most of such batsmen are not technically proficient players turned into big swashbucklers; they are rather unorthodox cricketers from a very young age who did not change their technique because what they did was effective. The point is that the change in the way the game is played has accepted the mutation that has come about in the style of batting. Such players were present if you seek the domestic circuits of yesteryears, but they were never propelled to the international stage as they were filtered out by the requirements of the game. The new set of circumstances favour a new direction of evolution and as the big-hitting unorthodox players find success, it is exponentially replicated in the new generation of players.

Here is a list of five players who can muscle the ball, but they do not necessarily have an unorthodox technique, illustrating yet another facet of the game:

5. Brendon McCullum

The Kiwi batsman has an aggressive instinct that forms the nucleus of an attacking batsman. None of the players on this list premeditate their shots. They have the ability to adjust to the merit of the ball and use their attacking instinct to guide them. McCullum can start hitting the ball from the very first minute, which is a unique skill. He is not an unorthodox batsmen in many ways, but uses his power to great effect. He has a very distinct way of using his feet; he usually does a little shimmy in T20 cricket or if he stays in his crease, he plants a big front foot forward. Even if the ball is dug short, he can stay on the front foot, pull his weight back, and use his excellent hand-eye coordination to play an effective shot. He is evidence to the fact that being a big-hitter is not only about brute power, but attitude as well.