Several years ago, I interviewed the coach of the Uruguayan football team and something he said has stuck with me ever since. Talking about the Brazilian’s skill, he said that players often suddenly break into a pattern or complete a move that surprises even their coaches. Figuratively, it left jaws agape and grown-ups drooling.
India’s T20 batting is doing the same now. Sometimes it is difficult to understand where the strokes come from – although many people work on these on the net and away from public scrutiny. The sight of Suryakumar Yadav’s flick or shovel square leg and behind the wicketkeeper so high into the stands between the screens is now so much a part of his game that the initial shock has worn off.
Clearly, there are no limits to what a player can do armed with just a bat and a lot of imagination – things like eye, fitness, attitude are certainly given importance.
With a few blows, conservatism can be taken to its logical extreme. When Sanju Samson leg-shifted and edged Taskin Ahmed past cover twice in the Hyderabad massacre against Bangladesh, it was surprising but could be explained by conventional metrics. The second stroke was played with a slight retreat, but that could have been understood.
In fact, despite scoring 111 runs off only 47 balls, Samson rarely went outside the parameters of orthodoxy; He seemed to do everything faster and with better time or energy. There was no need to bowl short to pull the ball into the stands, nor to pitch up to take it to the boundary line. When Mustafizur Rahman came to him and bowled the ball and gave no scope, Samson’s response was a six over extra cover. This is a high level skill.
And just as you were thinking that such shots cannot be repeated, Hardik Pandya did just that off the bowling of Tanzim Hasan. Riyan Parag, Rinku Singh, in fact everyone from No. 1 to No. 8 is capable of performing strokes that are incomprehensible but seem inevitable after execution.
Like a great musician or mathematician, the natural reaction to this would be: “How did he do that? How can Does he do that?” This is not a direct comparison between cricket and art – the similarity lies in the response to the effort.
In the second match, Hardik didn’t even bother to look at the ball on the bat or see where he hit it (Tashkin was the bowler). It was like a child’s favorite uncle’s card trick!
Rather like the Brazilian football team, the Indians have worked the angles, and commandeered spaces to run the ball into. Hundreds of hours of practice have allowed him to play both the shots he has practiced as well as beyond just practicing. It’s the latter that has been magical. The precision required to dig out a potential yorker and scoop it over point for six, as Suryakumar does regularly, is staggering.
In the commentary box, orthodox batting icon Sunil Gavaskar also could not hide his excitement. This pointed to the essential difference between traditional cricket and T20 – the former is about the process, the latter about the result. If Test batting is based on a coaching manual, the philosophy of T20 is as stated by novelist EM Forster in another context: Just connect.
Perhaps Virat Kohli had to retire to liberate the T20 mindset from the Indian point of view. That, and something for which Kohli can take some credit – a lack of selfishness. Young players are no longer afraid of the ax and play a ‘safe’ game. Samson resisted the temptation to just add runs after his recent poor scores but was aggressive from the start. Big score was just a matter of time.
There is a famous goal from the World Cup in 1970 where Brazil’s Jairzinho scored against England after often surprising moves. At least a few others might have scored, but he was in the best position. There was spontaneity and freedom, and above all, surprise – these elements are now coming together in India’s T20 batting.
published – October 16, 2024 12:39 am IST