Doing it the left handed way

They say Cricket is a batsman's game and there is nothing to blame them. The pitches that gave wicked bounce and swing that made the batsmen look foolish seems a distant memory. The fact that the rules are now made very batsmen friendly and that the size of the edges of the modern day bats have become huge has only drifted the game in the batsmen's favour further.There were calls that it will make the bowlers lose interest in the game and that cricket will be reduced to a mere runfest instead of being an proper contest between bat and ball. However, players have always found a way to tackle tough situations. The bowlers have now developed new weapons in their armory like slower bouncers, cutters, doosra, carrom balls etc. to all sorts of mindboggling shots being played by the batsmen these days.

Everything said and done, cricket ultimately remains the game of certain basic rules that even in the wildest of matches, that if followed can fetch you great results. Many a yesteryears' bowlers emphasize on keeping it simple. They rue the fact that yorkers have lost its importance in the onslaught by the batsmen. One might think that a modern day batsmen is now well equipped to tackle a yorker or other traditional deliveries that used to fetch wickets a couple of decades ago. After all, who in the world were able to scoop a full length delivery over the keeper's head or smash a yorker with a helicopter shot for six?
Then again, few things never change. Cricket has evolved so much and cricketers are so innovative nowadays and that is actually now innovative to be simple and that is what exactly all the cricketing greats have been saying - to keep it simple. Wasim Akram, one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of the game was highly innovative in himself back in the hand and even the current crop of fast bowlers like Mitchell Starc and Trent Boult the day agree that he has set a benchmark for the fast bowlers. Now, Starc and Boult have been bowling exceedingly well and them looking at Wasim as their role model shows how good a bowler he was. Another great bowler coming back to the scene is Pakistan's Mohammad Amir. He has created quite a buzz from his on field performance ever since making a comeback achieving laurels from arch rival and Indian captain Virat Kohli.

Above stats includes performances of both spinners and seamers

What is common between these three top bowlers are that they are all left handed. Left arm bowlers are no alien to the game but the fact is they in this ever evolving game, if there is one thing that has been consistent, it is the dominance of the left arm bowlers. There was even a time when a team like India known for its spinners could field as many as four left arm fast bowlers if they wanted to (Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra and RP Singh). They were quite successful during those years particularly in the limited overs format. Currently Pakistan have similar crop of bowlers (Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Wahab Riaz, Rahat Ali) and as we can see they were the world #1 side in test cricket not so long ago. Former test player Aakash Chopra has even went on to say, “If pitches across the world keep getting flatter and the one-day rules stay as they are, it won't be surprising if a left-arm fast bowler becomes mandatory in every starting XI”
So, what is it that even after so much innovation in a batsman's game, even after the inclusion of a plethora of ridiculously insane shot making and the overcoming the mystery of unorthodox bowling, the batsmen remain perplexed against left arm bowling? The answer lies in how cricket is played. Cricket is a game of angles, practice and patience.

Batting at the highest level has lot of do with reflexes. Batsmen grow up from school days playing right arm fast bowlers and therefore when they encounter the left-armer, they do so without adequate exposure. Batting is ultimately the reflex response in a fraction of a second and the left-armer’s line of attack induces some hesitancy in the mind and therefore the reflex too is affected. The difference is a left-armer bowls over the wicket introducing a new angle to the right-hand bat and the batsman is forced to play balls pitching in line with the stumps. This not only gets the LBW in play but also forces the batsmen to play against an outgoing delivery due to the angle which increases the chances of batsmen knicking the ball.So is it easy for a left handed batsman to face left arm bowlers. A left handed batsman certainly has a better chance against a left arm bowler compared to the right handed batsman but over the years we have seen left handers struggle against left armers as well. Graeme Smith and Michael Hussey would agree on that. Why? It probably narrows down to reflexes that you have got from an early and the famous proverb ‘Practice maketh man perfect’.