Batting tips from IPL 15

Here we look at some important batting lessons learnt from this IPL edition

After 74 matches in a little over two months, some trends emerged out of the 15th edition of IPL. Here we look at some important batting lessons learnt from this edition

Jos Buttler of Rajasthan Royals (PTI)

India openers need catching up

Go the Jos Buttler way (barring the final, of course), or at least like Quinton de Kock. Make every ball count as an opener if you are eyeing that hundred, not just in the power play, but also in the middle overs. This IPL has really brought out the best and worst in openers. KL Rahul finished with two centuries and four fifties but he was way too slow at the start. That Buttler hit 45 sixes, 11 more than next-best Liam Livingstone, shows how well he compensated for the few slow starts. Same with David Warner or de Kock. The same can’t be said about the Indian openers though.

Rahul had the highest strike rate among Indian openers. 

SR of openers with at least 400 runs

D Warner 432 150.52

J Buttler 863 149.05

Q de Kock 508 148.97

KL Rahul 616 135.38

A Sharma 426 133.12

Maintain the tempo

An anchor makes little sense when you have almost seven batters to spare in 20 overs. Not many franchises have bought into this outlook but one of them reached the finals this way. Overall, among teams with at least five batters scoring 200 runs and more, Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals have been the most impressive. Have a look at the strike rates.

Maintain the tempo

Batter SR

Punjab Kings

S Dhawan 122.66

L Livingstone 182.08

J Sharma 163.63

J Bairstow 144.57

P Rajapaksa 159.68

Delhi Capitals

D Warner 150.52

M Marsh 132.80

R Pant 151.78

P Shaw 152.97

R Powell 149.70

Rajasthan Royals

J Buttler 149.05

S Hetmyer 153.92

S Samson 146.79

Y Jaiswal 132.98

D Padikkal 122.87

Be open to take risk once in a while

Risks and experiments

Be open to take risk once in a while. Break new ground. Look at Rajasthan Royals. Sanju Samson is their designated No 3 but they didn’t hesitate in trying R Ashwin in one match. It wasn’t that bad a punt, considering Ashwin finished with a creditable 50 off 38. Their other experiment will be talked about for a long time to come though. Two balls into the 19th over of their match against LSG, Ashwin was tactically retired out, paving the way for slog overs specialist Riyan Parag.

Tinkering with batting order doesn’t help

Royal Challengers Bangalore have changed their batting the least, Virat Kohli too has batted at No 2. But their overall composition hasn’t changed much. That lent them the solidity to survive the league stage and finish No 4. On the other hand are Kolkata Knight Riders who have been extremely fickle. Known as one of the more innovative sides of the IPL, KKR’s best batting experiment till date has been opening with Sunil Narine. But to demote Venkatesh Iyer was a self-goal KKR committed too many times. The results were for everyone to see.

Go local in the death overs

Need quick runs in the slog overs? Go local. Maybe check out the tape-ball tournaments to unearth some diamonds in the rough and get the best out of them before their stocks go through the roof. There is still a lot of talent yet to be tapped. Dinesh Karthik has been a revelation. But so have been finishers like Rinku Singh, Rahul Tewatia and Riyan Parag. Keep searching. More will come.

SR of Indian batters in overs 16-20 in chases

Batter SR

Rinku Singh 213

Rahul Tewatia 223

Axar Patel 212

Ayush Badoni 200

Dinesh Karthik 197

(minimum 15 balls faced)