England win
Buttler Hales Carnage
'Let it hurt'
Pandya hypes the crowd
The importance of data
England rising!
Powerplay
Game on
India's death overs
India 168
That open stance is not in every game. As for power, I love fitness. I knew when I was young that I can't become massive, no matter how much I train. I am lean but I have power. I love batting technique because that allows me to hit with power and consistency. In 2019 I started getting better in my technique. Automatically my consistency went up in power-hitting after I had sorted out playing against the short ball. Now no one bowls short balls to me. Before 2019, people used to come here (points to neck) and I was not good at pulling and hooking. I managed, but in 2019 I practised facing the plastic ball, tennis ball, making sure that my reflexes became quicker. I always had the position at the crease, it's just that I used to be late at reacting because of certain things with my technique.
I wanted to give myself that fraction of a second more. I didn't speak to anyone about it. I tried it in the nets and I started hitting well. Then what I did was, I bowled and I asked someone to cover the stumps and bat - I told him I would bowl yorkers. If he was showing the stumps, I could pitch the yorkers accurately, but if he covered the stumps, I was missing lots of balls [yorkers] because I wasn't seeing a target. That allowed me to understand that batting deep in the crease could give me a small advantage.I have also stood outside off stump in the past. I realised that by doing that, bowlers would think twice about bowling wide yorkers to me. But by showing the leg stump I could also get them to bowl in my areas. The bowler might think, he is exposing the leg stump, so if I pitch on the stumps, I could get him lbw, but I knew I would not miss it. I was attempting all this to gain that small upper hand - forcing the bowler to think. Because if you make the bowler think a little and he is not sure about it, then he could miss the length.