Swept under the rug
For a bowler to be swept away is no joke. A crafty spinner like Sri Lanka’s Muralitharan pitches a flighty ball on the off stump hoping that it will curl away enough to either take the edge or hit the stumps but instead he finds Younis Khan there putting his leg outside the off stump to sweep it away with impunity past the square leg boundary.
In recent years Pakistan cricket has lost out on a lot of things. Among the bigger issues like international cricket, consistent performance, star players, one almost invisible but baffling loss has been the extinction of the sweep shot. Considering the fragility of our batting line up and the nagging weaknesses of our batsmen against spin, it is quite a mystery as to why this tried and tested weapon has not been included into our batting skills manual.
Pakistan has had some great sweep shot players in the past, from Hanif Mohammad to Javed Miandad and Inzamam ul Haq. In fact there was a time when most Pakistani cricketers were able to play the sweep shot. But the last good sweeper is Younis Khan. Very few in our current line up know how to sweep consistently.
Why do batsmen no longer play the sweep shot?
Ironically, without knowing and learning the power of the orthodox sweep, every batsman wants to try the reverse sweep, which has more gallery value than scoring value, considering its success ratio.
Great batsmen of the past and present were/are all great sweepers. Jacque Kallis, Brian Lara, AB DeVilliers … all use the sweep shot to disarm bowlers and turn a good length ball into a run scoring one. Nothing will make the bowler lose his flight and length, and the captain change his field desperately, than two hefty sweeps crashing into the boundary rope.
However, Pakistani batsmen seem to have lost this art and this loss has made them particularly vulnerable against left-arm spinners. Consider these facts: Sri Lanka’s Ragana Herath, England’s Monty Panesar and Ashley Giles and the latest one Arafat Sunny of Bangladesh all slow left-arm spinners, have found success against Pakistan. The success of Herath against Pakistan is alarming considering that Pakistan is currently playing Sri Lanka. In the 2014 series against Sri Lanka at Galle, Herath took six for 48 as Pakistan crumbled to 180 all out in their second innings, leaving Sri Lanka to chase 99 for victory in 21 overs. Herath now has 88 wickets in 17 Tests against Pakistan. Pakistan skipper Misbah ul Haq has been dismissed nine times by Herath in 13 matches. Azhar Ali seven out of 10 times and Asad Shafiq seven times in five Test matches played against Sri Lanka in 2011-2015. Even Panesar loves this left-arm vulnerability of Pakistani batsmen and has taken 31 wickets in six Test matches against Pakistan.
Cricket and cricket rules have changed significantly over the years. Modern day cricket entails new laws such as the Decision Review System (DRS) to protect the sanctity of the umpires. The chances of getting out on a leg before wicket (lbw) are more than ever before with the fielding team having the advantage of reviewing a particular decision. An unsure batsman is a sitting duck. With so much stacked against batsmen, instead of prodding and groping like Ahmad Shahzad, rediscovering the art of sweep would prove more beneficial than just being stuck in the crease and trying to cut and slog with some bottom-handed technique.
From recent history if anyone wants to see (or coach) the sweep shot, there is no better sight than West Indian Brian Lara’s imperious dismissal of spinners by sweeping ball after ball till the bowler was praying for the over to finish. His batting against Muralitharan in Sri Lanka is a master class of batting against the world’s best spinner on spinning wickets.
In the present batting line up Sarfraz Ahmed is a case in point. Take for instance his innings against Sri Lanka in the first Test of the current series played in Galle. Sarfraz walked in at 96/5 with Pakistan in deep trouble suffering from a typical Pak-esque batting collapse. The third ball he faced was an over pitched delivery by Nuwan Pradeep and he managed to flick it behind square for a boundary. The next day, Sarfraz started from where he had left, by sweeping the first ball of Herath’s second over with a massive forward stride for a boundary in front of square. As a result, short leg was removed and it forced Angelo Mathews to push the fielders back. It was not the first time that Sarfraz played Herath well.
In the Colombo Test in 2014, Herath took 14 wickets against Pakistan with Sarfraz scoring 103 and 55, respectively. Was Sarfraz playing on a different pitch? No. Then what was different in his batting that enabled him to counter the spin and guile of Herath and others? There were two things that differentiated his innings from the rest of the batsmen. First, he was willing to use his feet and go down the pitch demonstrating to the spinners his positive intent. Secondly, he was most productive in sweeping the ball from the off stump to square leg and fine leg area. His unorthodox footwork disrupted Herath’s line and length and released the pressure that was created earlier on by some really tentative batting.In parts of the world where cricket is coached at a young age the sweep shot is discouraged. It is, after all, a cross-batted shot and it is risky. A case in point would be Mike Gatting’s infamous reverse sweep in the 1987 World Cup final in Kolkata that cost England the Cup. However, the regular sweep shot would have been a better choice then as it involved less risk than a reverse sweep.
With the Sri Lankan tour midway, it’s time for the Pakistan coaches and the team management to give the sweep shot more than just sweeping attention. Why has this shot which used to be a natural cross bat for subcontinent-bred batsmen gone out of the array of our batsmen? Is it too much bottom handed slogging? Is it too much early cricket with taped tennis balls? Is it a general lack of basic batting technique? This is something that needs to be addressed at a domestic level. Although there is no short term solution here, Pakistan has an army of coaches — Waqar Younis, Mushtaq Ahmed and Grant Flower, who can add to the preparedness of our batsmen.
Pakistan has had some great sweep shot players in the past, from Hanif Mohammad to Javed Miandad and Inzamam ul Haq. In fact there was a time when most Pakistani cricketers were able to play the sweep shot.
Talent not honed is talent destroyed. Pakistan has seen many examples of that. Coming from perhaps the most incompetent domestic structure in the world, playing for the national team is also their first opportunity to learn the basics of cricket. Talent without technique and temperament is going to keep on producing one-match wonders. What is imperative is an individual player profile analysis and a training plan customised to their requirement of fitness, skill gaps and potential. Without this plan if not Herath, there will always be another spinner around the corner running through Pakistan’s batting line up leaving us wondering yet again why our neighbours play spin so well. Perhaps it is time to go back to the basics and rediscover the art of playing the sweep shot.
The writer is a sports analyst/anchor
Twitter: ZAbbasOfficial
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 28th, 2015
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