Ben Stokes knew how to expose Sai Sudharsan — but Jamie Smith let him off

Times

2 days ago

For a long time the coaching from which I now derive so much pleasure disappeared from my life, but then, about nine years ago, a sudden change in employment status precipitated a return to it, initially at my old school, Monmouth, and I did so tentatively, very aware that power-hitting was raging and that in many quarters old-school technique had become old hat.
Within minutes of the first net session something stood out like a sore thumb: every single batsman was standing with their bat raised, as the likes of Tony Greig and Graham Gooch had once done as exceptions to the rule. Now everyone was doing it. It was a quite remarkable change, and the schoolboys were merely copying the professionals.
Some batters will now tap their bat and then raise it long before the bowler reaches his bound, but those who keep it grounded until ball release are few and far between, with India's Cheteshwar Pujara being a rarity in doing so. It is a conversation I have often had with the former national selector Ed Smith, who does some coaching of youngsters, and he always urges them 'to tap the bat!'
So what a joy to see the tall Indian left-hander Sai Sudharsan batting at Old Trafford, tapping his bat on the crease as players used to and creating a lovely, languid flow to his strokes. Watching him was to be transported back in time (Rishabh Pant does not stand with bat aloft but he is hardly old-fashioned).
It was a method that, on Sky Sports, was remarked upon by my colleague Mike Atherton, and it was interesting that when he asked Dinesh Karthik, a coach as well as a commentator, how the bat-raised or bat-tapping techniques relate to T20, the response was that actually Sudharsan's was the better.
That will have surprised many because it flies against all the baseball and power-hitting thinking, but the reason Karthik replied as he did is that, when a player taps the bat on the ground, they simply have to take their hands back a long way to play any kind of attacking shot, thus being able to generate significant momentum in the backswing and therefore considerable force through the ball. Just think of Viv Richards. Those who begin with hands high sometimes do not move them a great deal thereafter and therefore eschew any rhythm and then lose power.
There is, though, a downside to standing as the 23-year-old Sudharsan does, and that is that the propensity for his head to topple to the off side. That brought about his downfall in both innings of his Test debut in the first Test at Headingley, in the second innings chipping to mid-wicket with a heavy head, and in the first innings caught down the leg side for a duck.
Sudharsan missed the past two Tests, having been replaced at No3 by Karun Nair, but on his return for a second Test appearance that was how he should have been out here, as, when he had made 20, he was dropped by the wicketkeeper Jamie Smith off the captain Ben Stokes.
Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager.
It looked like a deliberate plan by England as they bowled from round the wicket and this ball was full and well down the leg side, as Sudharsan attempted to flick it with his hands well away from his body, simply because, with his head off kilter, he had to guess as to the exact line of the ball.
It was a bad drop by Smith, not least because the one he had taken from the same batsman at Headingley was a much harder chance, and it will doubtless have caused the Ben Foakes fanclub to find its querulous voice, but it was an isolated error and Stokes made a point at the end of the over of giving his stumper a tap on the back that was both encouraging and commiseratory.
Stokes fancied dismissing Sudharsan with the short ball anyway, applauding the batsman when he pulled a boundary and very nearly inducing a glove to leg slip the next ball. And the reinstated left-arm spinner Liam Dawson also fancied him from over the wicket into the rough, just as he had earlier snared Yashasvi Jaiswal, caught at slip.
But a wristy drive for four through cover indicated Sudharsan's dexterity against the twirlers, confirmed by a similar stroke off Joe Root to pass his maiden Test fifty, just as much as a pulled four off Jofra Archer, with front leg high up in the air. A back-foot punch off Stokes demonstrated his class against pace.
The longer Sudharsan batted, the more balanced he appeared, until a Stokes short ball did eventually do for him, and the more he made a case for a return to some old ways, which may just not be as outdated as some presume.