TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

The front foot - back foot conundrum for India's young batsmen

by Subramaniam Badrinath • Last updated on

India's troubles in Dharamsala were exacerbated by their batsmen struggling to get on to the front foot © BCCI

Never before, in a single decade, has the game influenced so much change in the Indian cricketer. Now, the boundary lines have ceased to exist. New balls have been added to the armoury, new shots have forced their way through, bats have gotten thicker, balls are sent into orbit more frequently and areas of the ground never accessed before are being done with ridiculous ease.

But somewhere in the fast paced, oft-changing, rapidly-developing world of modern-day cricket, the quintessential basics have seemingly gotten lost in the woods. Basics such as the bat coming close to the body, and reducing the gap between bat and pad (real layman terms as far as batting goes), seem to be getting close to irrelevant in the modern-day set-up, especially in limited-overs cricket.

These basics, the lack of it really, stood highlighted in Dharamsala. It was certainly a wake-up call on a seamer friendly track, especially for the young Indian batsmen and it was rightly pointed out by skipper Rohit Sharma in the post match presentation and press conference.

What bemused me is the seemingly prevailing trend among the young Indian batsman to lay so much weightage on back-foot play. For any knock, played anywhere in the world, a batsman is more likely to play 60-70% deliveries on the front foot. In the subcontinent, with pitches not providing too much bounce, that percentage would be significantly higher. But for majority of the Indian batsmen in Dharamsala, their game was titled towards playing off the back foot.

There are two things that contribute to this. Indian batsmen are generally more committed towards playing off the front foot, but when there is some doubt in mind, the legs tend to not move the way the are supposed to. Shikhar Dhawan was a prime example in the first ODI. With Angelo Mathews getting the ball to move around, Dhawan's lack of clarity resulted in less than ideal movement of his feet, and subsequently his dismissal.

The second is where the young players of today are possibly going wrong. The likes of Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey, the former in particular, seemed to have the bulk of his weight on his left foot. This would mean that the player can not push fully forward the way he would want. With around 70% weight on the front foot, it would be much easier to push yourself onto the back foot, and that is what Manish Pandey and Iyer did.

The ideal weight distribution should be around 60% on the right foot (for right handers), that would allow the player to push forward while also making the adjustment to go back if needed. The short ball is invariably slower than the fuller ones, so that would give the players that extra second to make the adjustment. But to do the reverse (transferring weight from back foot to front) is much harder.

This tendency to put more weight on the front foot could be a result of over-practising back foot shots too. In international cricket, you need a strong back-foot game to be successful and with Indian domestic cricket not really challenging you on that front, a player could be tempted into trying too hard in the nets. That snowballs into a fixed memory that the muscles can't forget, and could possibly seep through into a young player's technique.

There is a reason the length just short of full is called good length. As a batsman, this length is better accessed on the front foot. The Sri Lankan pacers, with their limited resources, bowled with relentless consistency and accuracy, hitting the good length with testing lines. The batsmen, of course, didn't help their own cause by hanging back, even when the bowlers were not express.

The greatest of the Indian batsmen - from Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid to Virat Kohli - were all good off the back foot, but they were excellent off the front foot in the first place. Most of their practice sessions would be focused on front-foot play, showing the full face of the bat and meeting the ball under the eyes.

The all Indian support staff of the team is doing a splendid job of managing the team and the technical inputs they have provided have made a difference. India seem a well-oiled machine that sputtered and endured a blemish of a match in Dharamsala. But taking only a technical standpoint, amidst all of this, is only the cricketer to be blamed?

Recalling from experience, as I was starting to knock on the national team doors, the then Indian Team coach, the one who didn't have a great time in India, laid undue importance on back-foot play even at a time when India were going to play a lot of cricket at home. It certainly planted (unwanted) thoughts in my head as a youngster. Here's hoping that the current young brigade don't fall prey to something similar.

This glorious game has been revolutionised in different ways, but the fact of the matter remains - as mentioned many times by my former coach Mr. Abdul Jabbar - "You have to stay at the wicket to get your runs, you can never do it from the dressing room clapping for others."

© Cricbuzz

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