The hardest part of Captaincy - "helping your batters"

John Rogers | May 30, 2023

No matter what targets are set, and suggestions made about hitting areas, the fact is half your top order is likely to fail in any close game.

That means two things.

1. You will need the lower order to come good - regularly, and in times of crisis

2. You have to help the top order to do better more often.

Exploring 1. Team spirit is the key. Every player is equally important. 

• If you take on a professional batter, do so on the condition they put in, batting, fielding and at practice. Likewise, don’t have "senior players” who strut as if it is their right to field in the slips. (Nor should you as captain field there unless you are a super-slipper. Best place for you is mid-off or mid-on near your bowler.) Everyone should be an equal in the side and put in equally. Yes, you may have older and more experienced players who may have fitness or injury concerns, but tolerate them only if they put in. Have “experienced” players, not “senior” players. Your rotund offie who delights in batting at no.11, may one day come in with 20 needed and get you home. That’s a sign of a good captain!
• Have a flexible batting order. For example, if your openers get going and No.3 is normally a kind of back-up opener, send in a stroke-maker when a wicket falls. That means no-one has a position as by right. Apart from the openers, who have a specific job, try to ensure the others are flexible, that is, one day the No.5 is going to find himself in to bat at 3 for 3 where he can’t hide. By contrast, after an opening partnership of over 50, as a hard-hitter maybe he should go in as No.3, and not be held back where the run-rate could have been accelerated.
• Find reasons to give lower-order batter time at the crease, so that when a crisis comes and they are needed, they have had a bit of match practice.

Summary 

Encourage the lower order batters and bowlers to feel involved and part of the batting strategy.

Exploring 2. Helping the top order. Always encourage, never criticise. 

• Getting out is inevitable. Often it is through no fault of their own, that is, a poor umpiring decision; a run-out mishap; a poor wicket and a good bowler; an unlikely catch off a good shot. And sometimes it will happen two or three times in a row and confidence levels will drop. A Test batter once said to me: “I might fail once and maybe a 2nd time, but I will score runs a third time.” I was amazed, but so it proved. And I used that with many batters. 
• "you are here because you’ve been successful, it will happen again - and soon!" For them it might be 4 failures in a row but the 5th time they will do well - and that might be in a final when as captain you don’t really expect it.
• the follow-on from that is to capitalise when they do get a start, that is, don’t waste it. That doesn’t mean block and simply occupy the crease, it means bat positively but don’t play silly, wild shots. Encourage them to be calm and sensible.

              

Net practice principles 

• Make a rule that no batter goes into a net without having had a throw-down where he has felt ball on bat and hit at least one nice drive out of the middle.
• So when they go into a net, their aim is not to play shots, but to get out as few times as possible. Re-enact arriving at the crease and coping with a poor wicket and good bowlers. Even if things don't go well in the nets, it is habit-forming. Then when the net is finished, encourage the batter to have more throw-downs to get that magic feel of hitting a ball out of the middle.
• If two nets are available and there is a 3rd, use it for throw-downs., Get batter to work in pairs, giving throw-downs - each with pads on to each other in turn - before and after they go into the nets.
• Encourage throw-downs generally, even during matches. - but - always - good, ‘testing' throw-downs, not gentle half-volleys. If your side is batting, No’s 7-11 should be encouraged to have a throw-down each. If the openers get out early, then encourage them to do have a throw-down. 

Three Back-up principles 

1. Preach “consistency”. Aim to get your occasional “match-winner” to become Mr Consistent. He’ll love you for it.

Consistency will help you win a string of matches. Match-winners who have one good score, but then miss out for several matches, can be liabilities.

2. The joy of the "big shot” versus the joy of a "key innings”.

Every batter wants to feel the pleasure of hitting a good shot out of the middle of the bat. But it’s addictive and often leads to wild shots and getting out.

Point out the greater pleasure of playing a key innings, where a batter, who has shown restraint and common sense, has earned the admiration of their team-mates - and they’ve been out in the middle for much longer as a centre of attention of everyone playing the game.

3. Dressing room banter is a wonderful part of the game. But watch for any that is critical of someone’s batting. Quietly and privately re-assure the one criticised and discourage that particular aspect in the banterer.

Summary

All of the above, many captains do instinctively.

But understanding them, forming them into a plan and communicating them, can produce surprising results.

Often you will get very little credit if things improve.

It helps to keep a record of what has happened before you start, to compare with what happens afterwards.

The Effect

What you are doing is building a calm, strong-minded team that is resilient and capable of winning matches that appear lost.