The subcontinent used to be a graveyard for so many visiting teams but ever since the sweep shot was seen as the answer to local conditions, the game has changed significantly. Watch these next two series in India (vs Australia and England) and see how regularly the shot is used as an offensive and defensive ploy against the Indian spinners.
Australia’s recent successes against the Asian teams, especially in the subcontinent, rely heavily on their mastery of the sweep shot. Against good spinners on tracks that don’t bounce as much, their use of the sweep has probably been the biggest tactical change in the last decade.
Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist use it as weapon – not just a gentle paddle for one, they employ the shot as a boundary-seeking missile. Because they sweep on length, rather than line, their powerful physiques enable them to hit the ball well in front of square, often finding the boundary at ‘cow corner’. Phil Jacques too sweeps in front of square, almost a slog sweep. Steve Waugh’s legacy lives on.
The fact that they can sweep over wide midwicket (instead of the traditional sweep to backward square-leg) means that the captain has to now employ two men in the deep, possibly having to dispense with a close-in fielder or someone at square-leg to stop the easy push for a single. It is a deliberate ploy, practised endlessly and used as the preferred way to rotate strike. It is a team tactic and even the tail-enders are taught to play the shot properly.
Not that Australia have been the only team to use this against subcontinental opposition. Graham Gooch played a brilliant innings against India in the semi-final of the 1987 World Cup, sweeping Maninder Singh and Ravi Shastri to distraction in a famous victory.
Hansie Cronje used the slog sweep to great effect against Shane Warne in 1993/94 in Australia but inexplicably, the South Africans rarely used that ploy against him later. Jonty Rhodes was born with a broom in his hand but not many other South African batsmen swept Warne consistently. Perhaps the extra bounce on Australian/African pitches made it a riskier shot.
Allan Border was a great exponent of the shot but he tended to look for a single rather than the big boundary hit. England used the sweep shot against Pakistan in 2000 and again in Sri Lanka in 2001, led by Nasser Hussain who favoured that approach against the likes of Saqlain Mushtaq, Mustaq Ahmed and Murali. England won both those series, against all odds.
Indian batsmen however seem to use the shot more sparingly and more as a way to rotate strike rather than hit boundaries. Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag have had their moments when they’ve slog swept Warne and Murali out of the ground but one doesn’t tend to see it so much from great players of spin like Mohammed Azharuddin, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. I wonder why? There must be a good reason for that. All three are very wristy players so perhaps there’s a common theme in those cases.
Left-handers seem to favour the shot more than most. Saurav Ganguly and Gautam Gamhir are good exponents of the shot. Arjuna Ranatunga, Marcus Trescothick, Brian Lara, Andy Flower and Saeed Anwar were regular subscribers to the club. Maybe this is because so many right-arm bowlers seem to be pitching the ball just outside leg stump which takes the lbw out of the equation. It will be interesting now to see if the third umpire referral system changes that bias. Perhaps more lefties will be given out lbw on video replay. It’s a tough decision for the naked eye to give out at first look.
My prediction is that this series, and England’s tour to India, will be a 'sweep-fest'. The batsmen who execute the shot best, including the reverse-sweep (which is no longer a novelty shot) will determine the course of the series. It will be fascinating to see how the bowling captain sets his field to counter a shot that covers so much territory, from wide mid-on to a very fine-leg.
Another left handed exponent of the sweep shot, easily forgotten, was Robin Singh. Like you mentioned he employed it to rotate the strike in the middle overs - he was lightning quick between the wickets too. Jadeja and Robin also used the sweep to attack the spinners in the slog overs.
But as far as this Ind-Aus series goes, the Aussies will probably not use the sweep to counter Harbhajan on pitches offering variable bounce. Bhajji and Kumble can get the ball to bounce a lot off those pitches and the Aussie will definitely be cautious.
Posted by: Atul Bhogle at September 28, 2008 7:53 AM
Even though it is effective, it seems to be the easy way out when you are playing spin. As a bowler I would fancy myself more against a 'sweeper', especially on pitches with a bit of a bounce, than against someone who uses his feet well. This is the reason I consider VVS the best player of spin in the Indian team.
Playing the sweep as a default response to spin could lead to trouble, as we see with Yuvraj. As the article says, it should be used to spread the field around and make the bowler alter his length. Even though Hayden and Co have used it as a run making shot, I doubt lesser batsmen could do so. They are better off playing with a straight bat.
Azhar actually played the paddle sweep to great effect, and the one Sachin plays does seem to be inspired from Azhar's. Sachin did not play the sweep for a long time in his career - he only started playing it as a means to counter the leg stump line of the Warnes and later the negative line from the Giles'.
Posted by: Travis at September 28, 2008 1:26 PM
Rumours of Pontings demise in India have been greatly exaggerated.
Let the man play a series in India during his pomp that is not thwarted by injury before you write him off.
Posted by: Mike Holmans at September 28, 2008 11:58 PM
Fox, I'll be interested to see whether your prediction comes true when England visit India. Although himself an expert sweeper, England's batting coach Andy Flower seems to be teaching his players to play straight, in contrast to the sweep, sweep and sweep again method favoured by Duncan Fletcher.
Samir Chopra lives in Brooklyn and teaches Computer Science and Philosophy at the City University of New York; his academic interests include the philosophical foundations of artificial intelligence and the politics of technology. In his third undergraduate year, he captained Mathematics in the departmental cricket competition (and lost to Chemistry in the first round). Samir played C-grade cricket in Sydney and makes guest appearances for his old club when possible (and desirable). Samir runs the blog Eye on Cricket and the cricket page at The Faster Times.
Paul Ford is a co-founder of the New Zealand cricket supporters' cult, the Beige Brigade. He was once described by a current New Zealand cricketer as "looking spastic" even mucking about with an Excalibur and a tennis ball in the backyard. Paul bowls right-armed Nathan Astlesque "nudes", his batting would make Ewen Chatfield look elegant, and he is a committed fielder. He sometimes grows a beard to hide his double chin and inhabits a periphery of cricket that Cricinfo is proud to be glimpsing through this blog.
Stephen Gelb grew up in Cape Town, a short walk from the beautiful Newlands ground. Always a better student of the game than player, his passion for cricket survived eight years as a student in Canada, where he learned to love baseball too. He lives in Johannesburg doing economic research at The EDGE Institute and teaching at Wits University.
Mike Holmans, a database consultant by profession, has spent thirty summers (and a few winters) going to the cricket. Brought up in one and working in the other, his dearest wish is for a season to end with Yorkshire winning the county championship by beating runners-up Middlesex by one wicket with five minutes to go. If it’s also a summer when England win the Ashes, so much the better.
Born in Colombo, educated at Oxford and now living in Brisbane - Michael Jeh (Fox) is a cricket lover with a global perspective on the game. An Oxford Blue who played first-class cricket, he is a Playing Member of the MCC and still plays grade cricket. His views on cricket might best be described as those of a "modern traditionalist". Michael now works closely with elite athletes in his job as a manager at Griffith University in Queensland.
Saad Shafqat takes special pride that his cricket-watching life began during the three-month interval between Javed Miandad's debut Test in Lahore and Imran Khan's 12-wicket haul at Sydney. Although a practicing neurologist based in Karachi, cricket has never been far from his activities. He has co-authored Javed Miandad’s autobiography Cutting Edge and has been a contributor to Cricinfo since 2005. His regular column Reverse Swing appears fortnightly in Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English daily.
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