The most salient takeaway from the just-concluded Ashes Series is neither Steve Smith’s stellar run nor Ben Stokes’s valiant efforts at winning a match single-handedly. The most notable aspect of the series was both Australia and England had huge holes in their batting line-ups.
Ben Stokes’s 135 at Headingley was the stuff of legend. But, with his exception, hardly anyone in English batting line up was a match-winner. Granted Joe Root scored few half-centuries. But, rest of their batsmen were in a hurry to lose their wickets on average balls.
Australia’s case was better, thanks mostly to Smith’s Bradmanesque form. If not for Smith, Australia could have lost the series 0-3 or maybe even 0-4. The only other batsman in Australian line-up, who did his job, was Marnus Labuchagne, who incidentally was brought to play because Smith had to go for a concussion test. Apart from these two, Australian batsmen struggled to remember what batting in a test match was.
The question arises that why teams all over the world are struggling with batting in test matches, especially when conditions are bowler-friendly. Closer home, even in the Indian team, only Kohli, Pujara and Rahane displayed the kind of temperament required in a test match.
One possible reason is the huge difference in playing conditions in T-20s and ODIs on one hand and test matches on the other hand. The conditions are really batsmen-friendly in T-20s and ODIs. Over the years, the rules have been tweaked in favour of T-20 and ODI batsmen.
Pitches are kept flat, the ball does not do much and fielding restrictions are imposed to ensure that batsmen have a go at bowlers easily. A number of young batsmen are specialist ODI and T-20 players. In fact, even Kohli was more of a white-ball player than a red ball-player when he started playing.
If batting well in a white-ball match is enough to get a player entry into a team, chances are very high that he will struggle in red-ball matches. The other unique aspect of modern-day batting is ‘mental fragility’.
Every team has batsmen who suddenly become mentally weak when faced with few failures. This wasn’t the case 10 or 15 years ago. Even then batsmen went through rough patches, but they would come back strongly. Today, we have star batsmen, who play well in few matches but then suddenly forget what batting is.
It is not clear yet as to what is causing mental fragility among batting line-ups. Several theories are doing the rounds like too much workload due to three formats, excessive travelling etc. The mental weakness part has to be addressed soon. Else, most batsmen of the current crop wouldn’t be worth the comparison with their predecessors.
