Simon Hughes
Having found his radar, a quick bowler is soon likely to test an opening batsman with some shorter-pitched bowling. Not necessarily bouncers at his head, just deliveries that rise up a bit and explore his technique, reactions and courage. Basically, if you are unhappy playing back, you won't get far as an opening batsman. The new ball will always bounce a bit higher than an old one, sometimes uncomfortably so.
Opening batsmen are forced onto the back foot pretty early by the extra bounce of the new ball. It's important they get on top of the bounce and try to keep it down, out of reach of close fielders. Sherwin Campbell uses
literally every inch of space to do this, stepping perilously close to the stumps as he jabs the ball down. He's very chest on, which allows him to get his hands higher. The usual, orthodox stance on the back foot is more sideways on, with the hips aligned and pointing down the wicket.
Batsmen get a lot of hand jarring from fending off balls that ram into the top of the bat, and fingers. One technique called 'playing with soft hands' counters this by actually taking a hand off the bat at the moment of impact, this deadens the ball and stops it carrying to the slips.
 Unorthodox
Sherwin Campbell (far left and left) is using every inch of space behind him to get everything right behind the ball.
 Orthodox
A traditional, sideways back defensive shot from Michael Atherton (left). He's got off his toes to get on top of the ball.
 Soft hands
Mark Ramprakash (left) does the instinctive thing and takes his bottom hand off the bat. It is a risky strategy but is well executed here.
 Lift is the danger
Curtly Ambrose (far left) gets extreme bounce due to his height which poses problems for most batsmen, especially tall players like Graeme Hick (left), who fails to evade a quick ball.
Footwork
You need to be nimble on the back foot, which is why most of the best batsmen in the world have been small and compact. Batsmen with larger frames tend to have slightly static footwork and get discomforted by quick, short bowling. The danger here is that the batsman gets tucked up into an awkward position and has to play jerky defensive shots, or as he instinctively moves out of the way of the ball actually takes his eye off it – with painful results.
Copyright material reproduced under license from Macmillan Publishers Ltd. London, England
Copyright © Simon Hughes 2001
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