Do we think about tail-enders batting ability?
In the game of Cricket, tail-enders are the ones who are at the bottom of a score sheet or the players who have a lower level of batting ability. Normally, in a match, if a side loses 6 or 7 wickets, their tail-enders start coming to bat and that batting team’s innings probably finish in a short time period. But there are some tailenders who show great resistance to the bowling team and frustrate the bowling team when these tailenders come to bat.
But most of the time these tailenders come and just throw the bat at deliveries and give away their wicket irresponsibly. Sometimes tail-enders or these proper bowlers don’t think about their batting because they think their duty is just bowling or sometimes teams and their management don’t pay attention to the batting of their tailenders or sometimes teams and their management think and talk about uplifting the batting ability of their tail-enders but not implement them in the practice sessions.
For example, history and records tell that Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and West Indies produce tail-enders with the worst batting ability while England, Australia, and New Zealand produce tail-enders with enough ability in batting. Also, the Indians produce tail-enders who have the ability in batting from the last few years.
If a side has strong tail-enders, that team can put extra 30-40 runs or more to their tally and that team will increase the confidence of their team and their batting department.
For solving this problem, basically, teams and coaches must put these tail-enders on nets and to side wickets and must practice them regularly or individually these tail-enders have to focus on their batting as well as their bowling. And that can increase the batting ability of tail-enders and can cause the success of a team. But this would not be a long-term solution or the most effective solution because it’s not easy to learn a skill when players come to the elite level and not easy to put a skill into muscle memory when players become adults.
Because of that, the best stage to uplift the batting ability of tail-enders is School Cricket. Most of the time in school cricket, the bowlers of a team don’t get a chance to bat in practice sessions and they just bat two, or three times a month in the middle and ask to do well in match situations when they don’t have enough batting practice and confidence. Because these school tail-enders carry this cycle for a longer period of time, they become typical tail-enders who don’t have the ability to bat, and who just have to hang around in the crease when coming to bat after they become elite international players. Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and West Indies face the consequences of this. For that school coaches must get the responsibility to train tail-enders in batting and coaches must influence their tail-enders to do training in batting individually. Also, school coaches can give batting tasks in practices as well as in matches for their tail-enders, and coaches must give confidence and uplift the confidence of their school team tail-enders.
By Chathushka Kalunayaka
