The Insider

Advantage lefties

Life's better in cricket if you're a left-hand batsman or bowler

Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra
06-May-2010
Zaheer Khan was probably easier to play early in his career, when he was quicker, because he only developed the skill of bringing the ball in to the batsman later  •  AFP

Zaheer Khan was probably easier to play early in his career, when he was quicker, because he only developed the skill of bringing the ball in to the batsman later  •  AFP

Don't you think left-hand batsmen look more elegant? Aren't effective left-arm spinners easier to find, as opposed to a quality offspinners? And don't left-arm quick bowlers have much more to offer than their right-arm counterparts? What is it about lefties that is so right? What is it that makes them ever so exhilarating to watch in action?
Left-arm quick bowlers
When you're facing a left-arm seamer bowling from over the wicket, if you're a right-hand batsman, you immediately have to open up your stance a bit, from the toes to the upper body, to have a complete view of the bowler and the path of the ball. It is one of the few instances in cricket when you are advised not to stay side-on, for if you remain completely side-on, you'll only be able to see the bowler from the corner of your eye, and that would impair your judgement. So, before he has bowled a ball, the bowler has forced the batsman to make an adjustment.
Left-arm seamers also have the flair of making the straight ball look like it has done something when it slants across a batsman. It's just the angle taking the ball away from the right-hander, but from 22 yards away it feels like it is going away rather than just travelling in a straight line. In such conditions, the batsman can always do with a bit of extra bounce, as there was when India played in Australia in 2003-04. Nathan Bracken and India's left-arm bowlers consistently made the ball hold its line, and even dart back in, but as a batsman you could always trust the bounce to take it over the top of the stumps if you misread an inswinger for a straight one.
Also, you can live with the ball that slants across, as the leg-before option is ruled out. If a ball of this sort is going on to hit the stumps, it invariably pitches outside leg stump; and if it pitches in line, the angle takes it away from the stumps.
Zaheer Khan, when he started, was a prime example of a left-arm bowler who slanted the ball across. Despite being quicker then, he was relatively easier to play then than he is now. Both Virender Sehwag and I played him in a Duleep Trophy game. While the angle allowed me to leave everything that pitched even on off stump, it provided enough width for Viru to unleash his square cuts.
But as soon as the ball starts swinging in to the right-hander, in the air and off the surface, a host of new possibilities open up. As a batsman your first instinct is to get the pad out of the way, because the leg-before is a left-arm swing bowler's bread-and-butter dismissal. So you tend to play inside the line, and sometimes even with a short stride forward, to ensure that you play with the bat.
It's easier to go a lot more forward, and probably outside the line, to a right-arm inswing bowler, but you can't do that with a left-armer for two reasons. One, since you're standing with your stance open, it's almost impossible to go that far across. Second, and more important, the natural swing tends to finish within the stumps because of the angle the ball is bowled from. A right-arm inswing bowler tends to bowl from wider of the crease and the angle takes the ball down the leg side, but that's not the case with the left-arm bowler. Swing and seam movement allow him to pitch it outside the off stump. Sometimes it shapes back in and on other occasions it just holds its line. Both can be dangerous. Under normal circumstances, if the ball is pitched a fair bit outside the off stump, it doesn't come in enough after pitching to pose a threat. It's a fine line, though. An inch either way can make the difference.
Left-arm bowlers have another weapon in their armoury. When the ball gets old, they come from around the wicket and make the batsman's job even more difficult. Since outswingers are a rarity with the old ball, the batsman can always make the adjustment of staying inside the line. But the dynamics change while facing a left-arm quick, for he can take the ball away from a right-hand batsman. Also, the angle at which they deliver makes you play at the ball.
Left-arm seamers have the flair of making the straight ball look like it has done something when it slants across a batsman. It's just the angle taking the ball away from the right-hander, but from 22 yards away, it feels like it is going away rather than just travelling in a straight line
Spinners at a glance
Can you imagine an offspinner surviving in this day and age without slightly bending his arm and without bowling a doosra? I doubt it. But you can if you're a left-arm spinner. The mere fact that they take the ball away from the right-hand batsman makes them worthy of a place in the side, while a right-hand offspinner in contrast must have plenty of tricks to keep the batsman quiet - because it's always easier to hit the ball spinning in to the batsman. Not only are the chances of getting stumped fewer with offbreaks, it's ideal for the batsman's natural swing, which is to go over long-on and midwicket. Of course, slow left-armers face the same predicament while bowling to left-hand batsmen, but there aren't too many of the latter around.
Left-hand batsmen
One might perhaps assume that right-arm bowlers enjoy the same advantages against left-hand batsmen that left-armers do against right-hand batsmen, but that's far from the truth. There are only a handful of bowlers, like Glenn McGrath, who feel comfortable bowling to left-hand batsmen.
In theory, bowlers like Muttiah Muralitharan and Harbhajan Singh should love being able to take the ball away from left-hand batsmen, but even they prefer to bowl at right-hand batsmen.
It's all about practice, and the more you bowl at certain types of batsmen, the better you become at it. When you're almost always bowling to right-handers, you develop a line that is suitable to counter them. That's why both Harbhajan and Muralitharan are reluctant to go around the stumps while bowling to southpaws. But by bowling from over the wicket, you almost rule out the lbw, because either the ball pitches outside the line of leg stump, or if it pitches in line, it misses the stumps. Only a doosra, or a floater pitching in line with the stumps, can get the batsman leg-before from that angle.
The same applies for the right-arm quick men against left-hand batsmen. If they stay over the wicket, the only way to get a leg-before decision is to get close to the stumps, start swinging the ball in from outside the off stump (which they aren't too used to) and then finish in line with the stumps. If they go around the wicket, they go wide on the crease and the angle takes the ball down the leg side. If getting a leg-before is tough from over the wicket, it's ever tougher from around the wicket.
But even left-hand batsmen have a small handicap to deal with: the rough created by right-arm bowlers. Since there usually are more right-armers around, there is more damage on the side of the pitch that happens to be the area just outside off stump for a left-hander. But that's a small price to pay for other major benefits.
Researchers at Oxford University believe they have found a gene that increases the odds of being left-handed. Certainly, if a way is ever found of manufacturing this gene, every cricket-obsessed parent who wants his kid to play cricket would be a potential customer. I, too, would perhaps give my right hand for an ingenious left hand - much like Rafael Nadal, whose uncle made sure his nephew made his left his right.

Former India opener Aakash Chopra is the author of Beyond the Blues, an account of the 2007-08 Ranji Trophy season. His website is here