Liberated minds see today’s batsmen soar

The white ball action has been pretty intense over the last couple of weeks. To see such attacking cricket as displayed by the comeback man Glenn Maxwell in T20 and the opener Alex Hales, who sent several English ODI batting records packing, was to appreciate the transformation that has come about in limited-overs cricket. This has no more to do with state-of-the-art equipment. It is all in the mind and the modern batsmen keep proving there is no limit to positive play as a distinct philosophy of the new age.

The vigour and vivacity of style is such that the white ball, much like its baseball counterpart, has come to represent the sphere to be violently biffed and bashed about. It is not as if any of the mighty hitters of the game like Sir Viv Richards or ‘Beefy’ Botham or Kapil Dev did not hit the ball hard. They did so splendidly and with style. No one can forget how Viv stepped out to Jeff Thommo to carve him over extra cover or how Kapil hit four sweet sixes on the reel at Lord’s to avoid the follow-on.

The point is today’s batsmen swear by attack as a way of life. It has become the raison d’etre of the game itself. If a Chris Gayle cheekily asks Rohit Sharma to get a Test triple hundred, what he is actually saying is the modern batsman is most capable of sustaining attacking levels of play in Test match batting too. The most recent ones past the magical triple milestone are all the ‘big bash’ types who send the white ball travelling towards the stratosphere.

To see England catch up with such a batting trend makes the point even more pertinent. In the last 25 years or so, England has not been able to find a combination like the one of the 1987 World Cup and, even better, the XI of the 1992 World Cup final. And to think that before getting the 1992 unit together England had actually lost 18 of 22 ODIs between October 1989 and February 1991. Suddenly, out of such a dank background, came what may have been England’s best ODI combination in a long time with Gooch, Botham, Stewart, Hick, Fairbrother and Lamb making a handsome first six in the batting order and they had the bowling to back them up too.

The current England team found impetus even last year in a memorable series against New Zealand where the hosts may actually have learnt all about the game’s all-new philosophy of attack, attack, attack. To top the all-time highest ODI total was just affirmation of how the present lot have come on in the matter of taking the white ball head-on. The opposing team Pakistan may not have been the greatest, but then they are a bowling combination to be respected in all conditions. The 444 total was made against Wahab and Amir even if the set of spinners was of the ODI utility variety.

It would have been unimaginable nine years ago that England would dare to defy a big total by scoring almost 50 runs in the first two overs as Jason Roy and Alex Hales did against South Africa in the T20 worlds in India. That kind of opening gambit brought out the new sense of liberation in a team that has almost been out of fashion in white ball cricket in nearly 20 years since one Champions Trophy triumph in the last ’90s, fashioned somewhat curiously by a bits-and-pieces team led by the very definition of the term in Adam Holliaoke.

A lot went on in the social media war between Virender Sehwag, a great name when it comes to talking of attacking cricket, and the journalist who loves to turn the screws on everyone – Piers Morgan. But what the pot-stirring journo suggested was England might even win an ODI World Cup before an Indian athlete gets a gold medal in the Olympics. Inured as we are to buying gold at gold marts or even the Dubai souk, winning gold might not be such an easy proposition. But it is not outrageous to suggest the new England team with an aggressive outlook might win a white ball world event soon. Such a transformation has come about just from the liberation of the mind.