It is doubtful whether any aspirant coaches within the ECB
system consult the hallowed MCC Coaching Manual these days, much less impose
its occasionally dubious verities on their charges, for people now realize that
technique, while based on certain sound principles (sound at the linguistic
level, at least), is not about absolutes. Rather, it needs to be understood as
a hand-to-hand combat of energies – always factoring in the continuous
variation of pitch and overhead conditions – whereby the singular style and
skill-set of each player presents for their direct adversary what philosophers
like to call a ‘problematic’, a puzzle.
This has been amply illustrated at Edgbaston this morning
where the squat left-handed orthodoxy of Ian Westwood and the upright
right-handed idiosyncrasies of Varun Chopra have had the upper hand, managing
to ‘solve’ the distinct problems posed by the skiddy medium pace of Tim Murtagh
and the tall, lively Toby Roland-Jones.
Chopra’s technique involves several moving parts. Standing
tall at the crease, with a straight-armed backlift that is definitely Made in Essex (more Ronnie Irani than
Graham Gooch, mind), his trigger movement takes his back foot well outside off
stump, his front pad on to the line of off, so that he often hides all three stumps,
tempting the bowler to attack his castle yet with the line of his shoulders
remaining open enough for him to work the ball through mid on, mid-wicket
without playing around his front leg. One would imagine that, when out of form,
synchronisation might be an issue; without having looked from side-on, there
are suggestions that the amount of movement means not only is he not always
playing from a stable base, but that his weight distribution might occasionally
be too far over his back foot; that is, too much in the first part of his
trigger movement. I would suggest that, as for all players who pick their bats
up high, a sharp yorker first up might be worthwhile. Still, an England Lions
appearance last week and approaching 750 Championship runs at over 40 suggest
that his game is in reasonable order.
Westwood, meanwhile, is a figure of stillness and compaction.
The problematic he poses for bowlers concerns his height and, consequently,
their length. On the flipside, Roland-Jones’ bounce from this firm surface has
discomfited him on more than one occasion – a short ball being jabbed involuntarily
from the splice to the safety of a vacant leg gully region and a few balls of
good length hitting him amidships. However, when his defence has enticed the
bowler to search for a fuller length, he has been good enough to transfer his
weight and drive crisply and powerfully in the arc from cover to mid on.
The above was published by the Guardian on County Cricket- Live! for August 22, day one of Warwickshire vs Middlesex.
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