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*Official* 2nd Test at Lord's

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
It has been used as a reason Hales would fail at 3 (which he might) so it sounds like you agree with me. I also don't think Root has a wonderful technique.
The quality of technique, to me, matters in defence/when the ball is on the stumps. Everything else comes down to shot selection rather than how they play it.

A perfect example of that is Cook. He generally has a nice straight bat with his hands in tight when the ball is in line with the stumps. But when he drives through the offside, he starts to push through his back leg and his hands get in front of his body. But when batting well he doesn't play the shot.

As opposed to Bairstow (in his prior incarnation) where his hands would start wide of the stumps, so he had to either come inside out or across the line to hit balls on the stumps. But it put him in a great position to hit the ball through the offside, when the ball was wider of his hands.

Hales has similar issues to Bairstow, being so bottom handed it's hard for his hands to flow straight through the line of balls that are on the stumps, and doubly so at balls swinging back into him from left arm over.
 

91Jmay

Well-known member
Hales would struggle more with balls going away from bat from left armer than into him I think. He can be a nick off merchant, although he rarely faces pace like Johnson/Starc?
 
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