12 CRICKET BATTING TIPS AND 7 BATTING TECHNIQUES THAT EVERY CRICKETER SHOULD KNOW: WITH VIDEO

Cricket is a very complex and skill-demanding sport. In that batting is the most skill-demanding area. If you want to become a world-class batsman it will take you years of training and hard work. But working hard only can't make you a great batsman, you need to understand what and how you want to work in order to get the right results.

In this article, we are going to discuss various tips and techniques that you should follow to improve your batting exponentially. It is important to understand that knowing all these points doesn't make you a world-class batsman. But your success depends on how you interpret these points to apply in your professional batting career.

12 MUST-KNOW CRICKET BATTING TIPS

1)MASTER THE BASICS

Every professional was once a beginner and all beginners need to learn and master the basics to become a professional. This is one of the basic principles every budding cricketer should understand. without having a strong base even if you practice 3 or 4 hours a day you will not be able to master the art of batting.

Whenever a person decides to select a profession the first advice the top professionals in that field will give him will be to understand and learn the basics. One thing you should never do in your career is that don't rush through the basics, you must show the patience to learn it with at most precision.

Sticking to basics will help you a lot. It will show you a well-defined path that you need to follow in the first few years of your training. So you will be less confused about what to do next after passing each level in your training. 

You can learn the basics either by joining an academy or through YouTube videos. One of the important principles is that you should find out your mistakes and issues and correct them and you must always remember that coaches can only guide you, they can't transform you into a batting masterpiece.

2) SELECT THE RIGHT BAT 

Your bat has an important role to play in your performance and progress. If your bat is too heavy for you then your progress in training will be very poor because the weight of the bat will not allow you to train more effectively and efficiently and as a result, it will also affect your performance.

You must know that the weight of the bat is not the most important factor that helps you to hit boundaries. It is the speed and transfer of power through your bat that helps you to hit the ball to the boundary.

The problem while using a heavy bat is that if you can't control that much weight then your shots become less powerful and slower which will hamper your performance.

But if you can easily handle a heavy bat, then you can increase your power while playing shots and can hit easy boundaries. My advice for you is to start with a bat with a comfortable weight and change your bat to a more weighted bat as you progress. 

3)PLAY MORE GROUND SHOTS 

 When you are playing at the domestic level or state level scoring more runs is important. so it is important to protect your wicket than to score quickly. So you should focus on playing more ground shots. 

When trying to play more grounds shots you shouldn't do the mistake of over defending the ball, through grounds shots I mean that attacking the ball through shots that have less chance of costing you a wicket.

You should always try to follow the batting styles of Kohli, Sachin, Williamson, Smith, etc. They all succeed by mastering drives and defenses. Hitting huge sixes shouldn't be your goal if, you wish to have a more stable career. Instead of hitting huge sixes, you should master hitting powerful drives especially cover drives. In my opinion cover drives and straight drive should be your main weapons.

4)KEEP IT SIMPLE

One of the most common mistakes budding cricketers make is that they over-analyze each ball. It is important to analyze the bowler's grip to understand what he is trying to do. But you shouldn't always use this method to choose the shot you are going to play because you will make the process of batting more complicated and may feel that you are not capable of batting especially if you are a beginner.

This method is very complex and can negatively affect your performance. In my opinion, you should analyze and understand the movement of the ball and react to the movement of the ball to play a shot. The benefit of this method is that when you start observing the ball the shot for that particular ball will naturally come through your hands and you didn't want to consciously select each shot you need to play.

But when you are practicing batting you should watch the bowler and consciously select the shots and You must keep in mind that the experience you gain by training only will allow you to play shots more naturally on the field. 

Observing bowlers is a good method but it should be used when you start playing against great quality bowlers. One of the disadvantages of this method is that batsmen tend to react to the bowler's action than to the movement of the ball.

5)STAY CALM

Being calm is very important while batting because if you are nervous you will even miss the easiest balls bowled. The only way to gain confidence is to practice more and get more match practice. 

Most players face this problem during the initial years of their cricketing journey. If you face the same problem then the way to over is to close your ears to bullies when you fail to bat and continue to play more games.

6)UNDERSTANDING GAPS

Most of the cricketers tend to look at the fielders than looking at the gaps. The problem with this method is that you tend to focus more on avoiding fielders than playing the ball through the gap. 

Even though it is very important to know where fielders are but you should always try to understand the gaps better if you wish to attack the ball more frequently.

7)PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTH 

When you are playing a match don't focus on avoiding mistakes by focusing on your weakness. Instead, you should be trying to understand your strength and play to your strength.

Knowing your weakness is important. But you should focus on your weakness only when you are training. During training, you should not over-train the shots you are already good at.

8)GET FIT AND ATHLETIC

 BATTING TIPS AND TECHNIQUES- FITNESS

When it comes to fitness in cricket you should follow the footsteps of Virat Kohli. Everyone thought that to become a great batsman you need to develop your biceps and shoulders. But Virat is the only player in world cricket who understood the importance of training legs. Training legs made him a better runner between the wickets, better fielder and helped him to have a great balance while batting.

For becoming a world-class cricketer scoring boundary is not the only important thing. It is important to score more runs by running between the wicket because the strength of a batsman is to score runs even if the field is tight and defensive, for that, you need to have strong legs like Virat and Dhoni.

One of the common problems budding cricketers face is that the inability to balance the body while playing drives, the main reason behind it is that they are not able to balance their body weight on the front foot. The only easy way to overcome this is to train your legs by doing exercises like squats, lunges, leg press, etc.

Training your upper body is also important but when you train your upper body you should do more bodyweight workouts like push-ups, pull-ups, and dips. If you are using weighted exercise then you must do exercises like barbell bench press, powerlifting, and other compound exercises, and one thing you should be careful is that you shouldn't work out like a bodybuilder you should train more like an athlete.

9)BREAKDOWN YOUR GOAL

When you aim at scoring huge totals it is important to break down your goal into smaller and simple goals and you should have a separate strategy for achieving those smaller goals.

For example, if you are aiming to score a century in a particular match. Then you should divide that goal into smaller goals. Your first goal should be to defend the first 8 to 10 balls so that you can understand the pitch and other conditions and can get into your batting rhythm(form).

Your second goal should be to score 40 -50 runs through singles and some fours. Your third goal should be to score 65-70 runs at this time you should score by hitting more fours and running doubles. Your next goal should be to reach 100 from now on you should try to score by running more doubles and triples. After reaching your goal only you should attack by hitting sixes. But if you get a loose ball you get a loose ball at any stage of the game, you should punish the bowler by hitting it a six.

10)PERSONALISED TRAINING

When you are training you must personalize your training according to your strengths and weaknesses. Never do general batting training because you may be working on your strengths again and again and you won't be benefitting from the training.You must communicate with your coach about your issues and get a specific training routine that will help to answer your issues. Just training isn't enough specified smart work is needed to become a world-class batsman.

11)CHOOSE A COMFORTABLE STANCE

If you are a beginner then stick to the basic stance and grip. But when you have gained reasonable experience you can adjust your stance according to your batting strategy. Following the basic stance during the initial years of cricket is very helpful because the basic stance is very difficult to master and if you mast playing. shots using basic stance then you can easily play any shot using a more open stance.

It is always advisable to shift to a stance in which you feel that you are comfortable when you have gained reasonable experience in batting especially make sure that you have an open front foot, this will help you to get some additional time to react to the ball because the front foot movement is partially complete.

12) WATCH BATTING VIDEOS FROM YOUTUBE

One of the easiest ways to understand and learn batting is to watch and listen to professionals. and YouTube is the best place to get more information on batting. Visual learning helps you very much, make it a habit to learn by watching top players and never just went on watching, you must closely see and understand what they are doing.

MUST KNOW CRICKET BATTING TECHNIQUES

1)GUARD

The most important technique to learn after learning how to grip a bat is, how to take a guard. Taking guard means marking the place where you stand on the pitch in relation to the stumps.

For example, if you take an off-stump guard. It means that you should align the front foot of your shoes with the off stump.

Guard is taken to ensure that you are standing in the same position for all deliveries, in an over or in an innings. This will help you understand the ball's line and help you to decide whether to leave or play a ball.

If you are a beginner it is advisable to take the middle stump guard. It will help you to play shots to both sides of the ground easily. Later when you understand the game more deeply, you can change your guard according to your strategies.

2)GRIP AND STANCE

Grip in batting means how you hold the bat when batting. It is always advisable to use the v-grip because it helps you to play every shot comfortably. After all, the v-grip is very versatile and the v grip is used by more than 99 percent of all professional cricketers.

Stance in batting is how you stand on the pitch while facing a delivery. The best stance is to stand sideways with the head facing the bowler and the body and feet facing the point fielder and the feet should be parallel to the popping crease with shoulder-width apart. When you become experienced in batting you can open the front foot a little or you can choose the stance you feel comfortable.

3)WATCH THE BALL

Your only focus while batting should be the ball. When you stand to face a ball start watching the ball even before it is released and when it is released watch the movement of the ball and understand the movement of the ball and play the suitable shot.

Even after the ball is hit you should watch the ball when you are running between the wickets this will help you to score more runs and can reduce the chance of run-outs.

4)BACK LIFT

When the ball is released by the bowler the batsman lifts his bat backward to play the shot. It is always nicer to backlight your bat in a way that the face of your bat is facing 1st or 2nd slip. It helps to play all shots with reasonable comfort. Depending on the shot you want to play backlift can be a high backlift or a normal backlift. A high backlift helps you to play shots with some extra momentum.

5)FORWARD OR BACKWARD SHOT

Depending on the bounce of the ball the batsman makes a front foot or back foot movement. If the bounce (height) of the ball is below thigh level a front foot move is made. If the bounce of the ball is above thigh level a backfoot move is made

Front foot(forward) shots: Any shot played on the front foot is called a front foot shot and most shots in cricket can be played with a front foot movement like forward-defense, front-foot drives, front foot sweep, flicks, etc.

Back foot shots: Any shot played on the backfoot is called back foot shots. Shots like back foot defense, drives, sweep shot, pull shot are examples of the back foot shots. 

6) SCORE RUNS 

The next step is to score runs. Runs can be scored either by hitting a boundary or by running between the wickets. If you have played a shot through the gap or above the fielder it will reach the boundary. If you have played a shot in a way that it reaches a fielder then the next step is to score runs by running between the wickets. 

7)LEAVE THE BALL

This is an optional technique. If a ball is bowled outside the line of off stump and is moving away from the stump or traveling in a line outside the off Stump and if you feel that it is a difficult ball to play then you can leave the ball. This technique is used only in test cricket or sometimes in initial overs of ODI cricket. You should be careful while leaving a ball because sometimes some ball can swing or turn in and hit your wickets.