Column | Pioneers of unorthodox shots

Though India lost the first Test of the ongoing series against New Zealand by eight wickets, there was one big positive takeaway from this match. This was the dazzling innings played by Sarfaraz Khan in the second outing, when he struck a brilliant 150, embellished with 18 boundaries and 3 sixes. His fourth-wicket partnership of 177 with Rishabh Pant, which came off only 211 balls took the fight right back into the Kiwi camp and brought back memories of a similar onslaught launched by Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Azharuddin against South Africa at Cape Town in 1996. This was breathtaking stuff and the spectators enjoyed it thoroughly. They showed their appreciation by giving Sarfaraz a standing ovation when his innings came to an end.

The highlight of Sarfaraz’s innings was the manner in which he tackled the fast bowlers who came firing on all cylinders against him. Sarfaraz is reputed to be an excellent player of spin bowling and hence it was only natural that the Kiwis decided to test his skills against fast bowlers. There were also snide references about a perceived weakness against the short rising ball, which prompted a barrage of such deliveries from the Kiwi trio of Tim Southee, Matt Henry and William O’Rourke. But Sarfaraz tackled this spell with confidence, successfully employing the “ramp” shot that also brought plenty of runs against his name in the scorecard.

What is the “ramp” shot that Sarfaraz played so effectively at Bangalore? It is a new ingenious stroke that is played to place the ball behind the wicketkeeper in the area between third man and fine leg. The batsman moves out of the line of the ball, either towards the off or leg side, opens the face of his bat and uses the pace of the ball to guide it to the precise location. This shot is seen often in limited overs cricket but the frequency and ease with which Sarfaraz used this in Bengaluru to gather runs was nothing short of phenomenal. As one observer pointed out, Sarafarz did not get any runs from playing the ball in the conventional “V” area (between mid off and mid on regions) till he crossed the three figure mark during this innings; instead the bulk of his runs came from the reverse “V” territory, between fine leg and third man!

The extensive and effective employment of this unconventional stroke in the highest level of the game indicates that “ramp shot” will soon be recognised by the pundits as a proper cricketing one and included in approved coaching manuals. In due course, coaches all over the world will start teaching their wards how to play this shot in training sessions in the”nets”. This brings one to the subject regarding classification of shots under the head “conventional” and otherwise and how unorthodox strokes originate and finally get accepted as part of the game.

The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) was traditionally  considered as the repository of all wisdom in cricket and the methods accepted by them were copied by other nations playing this game. Coaches, the world over, depended on the MCC manuals to impart knowledge about the game to their trainees. And true to form, the MCC tended to look down upon other countries and considered only what was done by cricketers from England as correct and proper. Hence the strokes played by the batsmen in England found its way to the first set of coaching manuals brought out by this body.

Incidentally, it took a cricketer of Indian origin to play for the first time ever shots other than what was found in the MCC coaching manuals. Ranjitsinhji, a prince hailing from Nawanagar in India, played first-class cricket in England for Surrey. He is credited with inventing the “leg glance”, a stroke of sublime beauty that he played with perfection. This shot also fetched him plenty of runs and Ranjisinhji went on to play Test cricket for England. The wisemen in the MCC were not amused by this development and they mocked at  Ranjisinhji saying that he “never played a Christian shot” in his life! But, sooner rather than later, batsmen across the cricketing world started emulating Ranjisinhji by playing the leg glance, which they found to be a very profitable one that fetched them lots of runs. The popularity of this shot and its universal acceptance finally forced the MCC to include this, though rather grudgingly, in its coaching manuals!  

The next stroke that became widely used without being there in the coaching manuals was the “reverse sweep”. Unlike a normal sweep shot, which itself was not a conventional one to begin with, the reverse sweep is played on the off side of the wicket. Though Mushtaq Mohamed, former Pakistan captain who played for Northamptonshire, is credited with playing this shot regularly in English county cricket, this was introduced in the international arena by Ian Botham. During India's tour of England in 1982, Botham used this stroke effectively to neutralise Indian left-arm spin bowler Dilip Doshi, who lost his line, and temper as well, seeing deliveries pitched in line with middle and off stumps being “reverse swept” out of the ground by the batsman. 

The increasing popularity of limited overs cricket was bound to bring in new innovations to batting. The first of these innovations was the “scoop”, a shot that caused much amusement and even shock when it was first played in international cricket. Though this shot was used most extensively by Dilshan Tilekratne of Sri Lanka, thus giving it the name “Dilscoop”, it was first played by Zimbabwe’s Douglas Marillier during the series against India in 2002. The stroke involves the batsman “scooping” the ball by taking an almost chest-on position and depositing it in the “no man’s” land behind the wicketkeeper. The absence of fielders in the area not only insured against the dismissal of the batsman but also assured him of some easy runs.

The “switch hit”, where in the batsman suddenly changes from being a right hander to a left-hander or vice versa as the bowler delivers the ball was first played in Test cricket in 1921. This was done by Percy Fender of England in order to counter the Aussie strategy of bowling outside the leg stump to a packed leg side field. However, this was ruled as illegal by MCC in 1924 through a ruling which stated that a batsman who attempted this shot should be adjudged as “Out, Obstructing the field”.

In modern times, Kevin Pietersen of England is credited with inventing the “switch hit”, though there are claims that Jonty Rhodes and Krishnamachari Srikkanth played this stroke earlier in international cricket  This is a very difficult stroke to play as this involves not only a quick change in the orientation while one is preparing to receive the ball besides needing very powerful wrists and forearms. Only very few batsmen have mastered this shot as it is extremely difficult to keep one’s head steady without taking eyes off the ball, while changing the position of feet and readjusting the grip on the bat. Questions about legitimacy of this stroke were put to rest by a ruling of International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2012, which held that this was a legitimate shot.

“Reverse Scoop” is a further innovation of the scoop, in a manner similar to reverse sweep and the original sweep shots. While many have attempted this stroke with varying degrees of success,  one batsman who has a clean record in employing this shot, and that too against fast bowlers, is Rishabh Pant. The manner in which he played this shot against the likes of James Andersen and Jofra Archer of England and Barry McCarthy of Ireland was so breathtaking that it would remain in the minds of everyone privileged to see it. 

Playing such shots is certainly fraught with danger and can spell doom if attempted at inopportune times. The reverse sweep played by Mike Gatting in the final of the 1987 World Cup and the scoop by Misbah-ul-Haq in the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup are two examples in this regard. The fact that these batsmen fell while attempting these unorthodox shots at a time when they had the game in the bag and their dismissals resulted in the defeats of their sides added to their consternation and distress. If they had got out playing conventional shots, they would not have been pilloried to the extent they were on account playing these shots.

“Ramp” is all set to join the list of the unorthodox shots detailed above that have become an integral part of the strokes in the repertoire of batsmen at all levels in the game. Coaches used to recommend playing only conventional strokes as they were traditionally considered to be safe and proper. But the advent of limited overs cricket and the need to score runs faster has created an element of urgency among the batsmen and forced them to play unorthodox strokes to meet this end. This has injected more thrill and excitement into the game, thus adding to its charm, while also bringing the paying spectators back to the stadium. 

The willow-wielders who created these innovative strokes have, besides bringing immense joy to the followers of the game, also contributed immensely towards making the game more popular and rescuing it from the clutches of the stuffed shirts who hitherto used to control it. 

Let us salute them and their efforts.

(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a retired bureaucrat)