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Originally Posted by Andy Mellon I suppose another side to this question would be to look at those players who perform well in damp conditions - i.e. those which are overcast and humid or overcast and damp. These conditions are still fairly common today, and if you can play well in these conditions, you are a good batsman.
Interesting question - and I don't really have the answers!! Anyone else out there with more of an idea? |
This, to me, is the same question as "who are the greatest batsmen today"... because you are basically looking at the art of playing lateral movement.. and to my mind that's THE great test of a batsman: anyone with a good eye and good timing can look stunning when the ball is coming through on a predictable trajectory (think of all those "stand and deliver" ODI batsmen like Sehwag, Jayasuria, Hayden, Gayle, Symonds, Flintoff) but few seem to have the time, touch and judgement to cope well when the going gets tough.
Of course, the problem here is that many fairly ordinary batsmen do well in such conditions more through method and discipline (playing a line, refusing to be drawn, not worrying about middling the ball or how they keep the ball out): guys like Kirsten, Richardson and Hussain fall into that camp and are to my mind no better than the stand and deliver merchants.
Those who do NOT qualify here must include Vaughan (only great series came on Aussie pitches facing very little lateral movement) and Laxman (ultimate exemplar)... but the list of tose who CAN do it might well turn out to be pretty short: if I had to take a wild punt, right now, I'd perhaps back Kallis.