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"Cricket is a complex game that has many different roles that players can choose to fill. Some players will be specialist batsmen, some will be specialist bowlers, and some will gain popularity as excellent wicket keepers! All of the different roles within a cricket team require a player to possess certain basic skills in order to do their job well, and if you’re new to cricket then you may be wondering exactly what these skills are!\n\n\n\nIn this post I’m going to take you through each aspect of cricket and explain which skills you’ll need to work on if you want to become a successful player. I’ll also share some other useful resources and drills that you can use to improve your abilities in each area! Let's begin with batting...\n\n\n\nIf you are a batsman in cricket, these are the main skills you’ll need to possess:\n\n\n\nThe ability to pick up length quicklyA sound techniqueExcellent hand-eye co-ordinationQuick reflexesFlexible wristsHigh levels of concentrationUpper body strength &amp; core strengthGood balance &amp; weight transferGood cardiovascular fitnessAgility over short distances\n\n\n\nThe main skills you’ll need if you’re a bowler in cricket are as follows:\n\n\n\nAn ability to bowl an accurate, consistent line and lengthA smooth and repeatable run upGood flexibilityCore strengthAn ability to bowl several ‘variation’ deliveriesAn ability to spin the ball (if you are a spin bowler)High levels of cardiovascular fitness\n\n\n\nThe main skills you’ll need if you want to be an effective fielder/wicket keeper in cricket are as follows:\n\n\n\nExcellent hand-eye co-ordinationA sense of anticipationHigh levels of concentrationQuick reflexesGood sprinting speedAn ability to catch a cricket ball reliablyAn ability to throw the ball accurately\n\n\n\nIn the rest of this post, I’ll take you through each of the skills one by one and let you know how you can work on them!\n\n\n\nBatting\n\n\n\nBecoming a top-level batsman in cricket is one of the toughest tasks in sport. A good batsman should be confident when facing both fast bowlers and spin bowlers, and should display a solid technique in both attack and defence. Let’s go through the batting skills…\n\n\n\nThe Ability to Pick Up Length Quickly\n\n\n\nFoot movement is one of the most important parts of a batting technique. If you receive a full delivery that is below waist height when it reaches you, you should be moving your front foot down the pitch towards the ball. If you receive a short ball that is above waist height when it reaches you, you should be pushing backwards off your front foot and retreating in to your crease to play the ball off your back foot. This whole process is made much easier if you can learn to pick up the length of the ball nice and early while the ball is travelling towards you!\n\n\n\nThe only real way to improve this skill is by facing plenty of deliveries from real bowlers in practice. The more deliveries you face, the better you will be able to train yourself to watch the ball closely and notice the subtle differences between full and short balls while they are in flight.\n\n\n\nA Sound Technique\n\n\n\nAll batsmen need a good, solid technique that allows them to access the ball and play their shots effectively.\n\n\n\nFirstly, you need to make sure that you’re holding the bat in the correct way, so click here if you’d like to read my guide on several different ways to hold the bat! Believe it or not, the way we position our hands on the bat has a large impact on the types of shots we will play better than others! The article I just linked should give you all of the information you need.\n\n\n\nNext, you’ll need an appropriate batting stance. I have a post covering that too – which you can read by clicking here! Some players prefer to stand more sideways-on, with their shoulder pointing towards the bowler. Other players prefer to remain front-on, with more of their chest facing towards the bowler. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, so feel free to use the post I just linked to evaluate what will work best for you!\n\n\n\nSmall Differences In Your Batting Stance May Make A Big Difference To Your Style Of Batting\n\n\n\nAnother aspect of your technique you’ll need to make a decision on is what guard you want to take. Your ‘guard’ when batting basically refers to where you choose to stand. Some batsmen choose to align themselves with their off stump, whereas some choose to align themselves with the middle stump or the leg stump. These simple choices can make a big difference to how you play and which areas you will be aiming to hit the ball in. If you’d like more advice on which type of guard will be best for you, check out my post covering it by clicking here!\n\n\n\nAll of the things I’ve mentioned above are core elements of a solid technique. If we can get into good habits early in our batting career, it can make it a lot easier for us to score runs once we have become comfortable with our own style of play.\n\n\n\nExcellent Hand-Eye Co-ordination\n\n\n\nThis one will be pretty obvious, but the main aim of batting is to hit the ball and score runs. In order to do this regularly you’re going to need excellent hand-eye co-ordination!\n\n\n\nIn a cricketing sense, you can build your hand eye co-ordination by making sure you face lots of deliveries during your practice sessions. You can ask a coach to feed you slower deliveries to start with which will help you get comfortable with hitting the ball. Once you have gotten used to striking the ball when its being delivered at a low speed, ask your coach to increase the pace of the bowling and repeat the process.\n\n\n\nHand-eye co-ordination can also be built by playing other sports like tennis, baseball and squash, but if you’re wanting to become a great batsman, I’d recommend sticking to cricket based practice. Remember, the more tough deliveries you face in practice, the better prepared you will be to deal with tough bowling during a real match!\n\n\n\nQuick Reflexes\n\n\n\nTo deal with fast bowling, you’re going to need to be able to respond to the ball very quickly, and this is where having quick reflexes is vital. Quick reflexes will help you to get yourself out of the way of the ball if it is coming towards your head, and they’ll also help you adjust your shots when the ball does something unexpected once it hits the pitch. In addition to this, having fast reflexes allow you to quickly use your feet and come down the pitch towards a spin bowler!\n\n\n\nIf you want to increase the speed of your reflexes, there’s no better form of practice than facing fast bowling. One type of practice I’ve used over the years is by shortening the length of the pitch by a couple of metres. This means that bowlers or coaches will be able to bowl the ball at you from a bit of a shorter distance! This gives you less time to react and will mean you have to employ quick reflexes in order to deal with the delivery.\n\n\n\nWhen doing this kind of practice make sure you don’t make things too hard for yourself straight away. Fast bowling can be dangerous and making the pitch length shorter may not be a great idea if you’re an inexperienced batsman against a very quick bowler! Ask the fast bowler or your coach to start off slowly so you can build up to the higher speeds from there.\n\n\n\nFlexible Wrists\n\n\n\nHaving flexible wrists will mean that you’re very good at picking the gaps in between fielders. The best batsmen in the world will flex their wrists as they hit their shots in order to pierce a particular gap in the field, especially when batting against spin. This gives them more opportunities to score runs! A batsman who plays more conventionally with rigid wrists may hit the ball at the fielders more. This allows pressure to build on them and also makes it much easier for the opposition captain to set a field against!\n\n\n\nOne way I like to practice using my wrists is by laying out some cones while I’m batting during practice. The cones represent fielders, and I will usually arrange them around the sides of the net I’m batting in before trying to target the gaps between them when I’m playing my shots. By moving the cones around and trying to hit the ball into different gaps, you will teach yourself to manipulate your wrists while batting!\n\n\n\nHigh Levels of Concentration\n\n\n\nThis is something that’s very hard to teach, but the best batsmen will often have high levels of concentration that allow them to remain focused for long periods of time. Remaining focused and avoiding distractions and nerves as much as possible will enable you to bat more confidently and stay at the crease longer. This is something we should all be trying to achieve!\n\n\n\nIf you’re interested in improving the mental side of your batting, I’d recommend checking out one of my other popular posts by clicking here! That post will take you through how to minimise that feeling of nervousness before you walk out to bat, and it will also give you some tips on how to stay focused when you’re at the crease. Have a look and see if you can find something that will improve your game!\n\n\n\nUpper Body &amp; Core Strength\n\n\n\nTo hit the ball powerfully, you’re going to need a decent level of upper body and core strength. Thankfully, these are things that you can build very easily!\n\n\n\nUpper body strength is important because it has a big impact on how forcefully we can swing the bat, and core strength is important because it provides stability and balance when we are playing aggressive shots. Core strength also helps us to avoid injuries to our mid-section and our back!\n\n\n\nIf you want to begin improving your strength in these areas, there are a number of body weight exercises you can start doing today that will help you. Here are a few:\n\n\n\nPress UpsTricep DipsPlanksOblique DipsPull Ups\n\n\n\nFeel free to google some of these exercises and perform them if you have some time free! If you are a member of a gym, then this is even better! A gym membership gives you access to multiple pieces of gym equipment that will allow you to improve your strength in these vital areas.\n\n\n\nGood Balance &amp; Weight Transfer\n\n\n\nMaintaining good balance while playing your shots is vital if you want to be an effective batsman. Good balance allows you to transfer your weight into your shots a lot better, which means you don’t have to strike the ball as powerfully in order to hit it for a boundary!\n\n\n\nA good tip for keeping your balance while you’re playing your shots is to try to move your head towards the line of the ball, and get your head over the ball as much as you can as you strike it. Lots of players refer to this as ‘kissing the ball’, and doing it ensures that we don’t get our head way outside the line of the ball and ‘fall over’ in our stance. \n\n\n\nIf the ball is outside the line of the off stump, we should be moving our front foot towards that line and getting our head over to that line also. If the ball is coming towards your body, you shouldn’t be moving your head outside the line of the off stump. You should be keeping it roughly in its original position – which will make it much easier for you to hit the ball. The picture below shows how hard it is for you to stay balanced and play a good shot when you allow your head to get far away from the line of the ball!\n\n\n\nWhen Your Head Is Far Away From The Line Of The Ball - It's Much Harder To Play Accurate Shots\n\n\n\nYou also don’t want your feet to be too close together while you’re in your batting stance. You should start with a solid base, with your feet about shoulder width apart. This gives you a good opportunity to move forwards or backwards if you need to. Having your feet too close together makes it harder for you to move your feet quickly and accurately towards the ball!\n\n\n\nLastly, don’t commit too early to playing forwards or back. Many batsmen will plant their front foot down the pitch before the ball has got halfway towards them, and this harms your ability to transfer your weight into the ball and time your shot correctly. Ideally, you should be waiting to pick up the length of the ball and then choosing whether to play forwards or backwards, and waiting for the ball to come to you as you strike it.\n\n\n\nGood Cardiovascular Fitness\n\n\n\nYour level of cardiovascular fitness measures how well your heart, lungs and other major organs carry oxygen around your body. If you have a high level of cardiovascular fitness, you’ll be able to endure physical activity for a lot longer, which is useful if you’re planning to play a long innings in a cricket match! If you’re at the crease for a long time, there’s a high chance you’ll be running many 1’s, 2’s &amp; 3’s, and a higher level of cardiovascular fitness will help you complete these runs even after you’ve been batting for a few hours!\n\n\n\nIf you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness, going for a jog or running on a treadmill is a great place to start. Time yourself and see how long you can run for. Then, when you go for another run, push yourself a little bit harder and try to either run faster or run for longer. Small increases in intensity or the length of an exercise session are how we make improvements!\n\n\n\nAgility Over Short Distances\n\n\n\nBatting is a lot easier if you have high levels of agility over short distances, as this will allow you to run between the wickets a lot faster. Batsmen who are quick between the wickets can put lots of pressure on fielders and can engineer a few extra runs over the course of the innings as a result!\n\n\n\nIf you want to practice your agility over short distances, set up two cones around 5 – 10 metres apart and practice running between them as fast as possible. As you run between them, make sure you touch each cone as you turn around. Time yourself while you perform this drill and record how long it takes for you to touch each cone 3 times. The quicker you can do it, the better you will be at running between the wickets!\n\n\n\nIf you want to make this type of drill more cricket-specific, wear your batting equipment while you do it and position the cones around 20 metres apart. This will replicate the length of a cricket pitch more accurately. Wearing the equipment will allow you to get comfortable with running in pads, which can be quite an unusual experience if you’ve never done it before! When you reach one of the cones you should get in the body position below to turn around quickly! This is the body position that professional batsmen use during matches if they’re sprinting between the wickets quickly.\n\n\n\nThis Body Position Will Help You Turn Quicker As Your Run Between The Wickets\n\n\n\nBowling\n\n\n\nNo matter what type of bowler you are, there are a few basic skills that you’ll need in order to be successful. Allow me to take you through them!\n\n\n\nAn Ability to Bowl an Accurate, Consistent Line and Length\n\n\n\nThis may be obvious to many of you, but in my opinion accuracy is by far the most important aspect of bowling. If you’re an accurate bowler, you will be able to put the ball in difficult areas regularly, and as a result you will make it harder for batsmen to score. Putting the ball in these areas also makes you more likely to take wickets – which is what we should all be aiming to achieve! Some of the greatest bowlers of all time have been known for their excellent accuracy. Guys like Glenn McGrath, Shaun Pollock and Shane Warne are just a few of these! If you can make yourself anywhere near as accurate as those guys were, you’ll be a very successful bowler.\n\n\n\nOne of my favourite drills for working on your bowling accuracy is a simple target practice drill. All you have to do is place a small target on the pitch where you’re going to be bowling, then run up as normal and try to hit the target. I usually use a small pile of coins for the target, but you can also use a cone, or create a small ring of cones and try to land the ball in the middle of them. What you use for the target is really up to you! \n\n\n\nIf you’re trying this drill, I’d recommend bowling 30 balls at your target and recording how many successful hits you get. By doing this, you have a number that you can try to beat next time you do the drill. Once you have practiced hitting one area of the pitch, move your target to another spot so you can practice hitting that one too! I mainly use this drill to practice my good length deliveries, my yorkers and my bouncers.\n\n\n\nIf you’re a fast bowler who is looking for more ways to practice your accuracy, click here to read some more of my tips!\n\n\n\nA Smooth and Repeatable Run Up\n\n\n\nThe way you approach the crease when bowling is incredibly important. The run up is what allows us to build the momentum that we will use to propel the ball towards the batsman, so we should try to ensure that it is a smooth process that we can easily replicate. If your run up is different every time you approach the crease, you will have to think about it a lot more, and this could distract you from your main task which is to bowl a great ball! Ideally, we want to have a run up which is so natural and repeatable that we can perform it without thinking about it!\n\n\n\nFast bowlers have longer run ups that are usually somewhere between 10-20 paces in length. Spin bowlers have much shorter run ups that are often less than 5 paces in length! Because spin bowlers bowl slower deliveries, the run up isn’t as important for building momentum. However, for fast bowlers, it’s vital that you have an effective run up. If you’d like to see how to design one of those for yourself I’d strongly recommend checking out my post on the topic by clicking here!\n\n\n\nGood Flexibility\n\n\n\nFast bowling puts a lot of stress and strain on your muscles that can potentially lead to injury. Injuries like side strains and groin strains can be very painful and can take a long time to recover from! Maintaining your flexibility and making sure you stretch properly before you bowl is a great way to avoid these kinds of injuries. In addition to that, increased flexibility increases the range of motion in your joints, which can allow you to bowl faster! There really is no excuse to not be working on your flexibility if you’re a fast bowler.\n\n\n\nThe muscles you should be looking to stretch specifically are the lower body (hamstrings, calf, quadriceps, groin, glutes etc) and in the torso. Click here to read an article that will give you some great ideas on the different types of stretches you can do to improve your flexibility!\n\n\n\nCore Strength\n\n\n\nA strong core helps to stabilise your body while you bowl, and also allows you to transfer your momentum into the ball more efficiently as it leaves your hand. If you’re a fast bowler, a lot of your speed will come from your trunk (the central part of the body), so it’s important to make your body strong and powerful in this area.\n\n\n\nIf you’re wanting to build some basic core strength, I’d start by performing some of the following exercises a few times a week:\n\n\n\nConventional planksSide planksOblique dipsSide bendsCrunchesLeg raises\n\n\n\nIf you’re not sure what these exercises look like, feel free to search them on google and you should find some great guides that cover how to perform them!\n\n\n\nAn Ability to Bowl Several ‘Variation’ Deliveries\n\n\n\nMost fast bowlers and spin bowlers will have their standard deliveries that they bowl the majority of the time. This is often referred to as a ‘stock ball’. For a fast bowler, their stock ball is usually a good length delivery on the line of off stump. A leg spin bowler’s stock ball is a leg break brings the batsman forward to defend or play a drive. An off spin bowler’s stock ball is an off break that also aims to bring the batsman forward.\n\n\n\nIf a batsman has been at the crease for a while, they will probably get comfortable facing your stock ball. When this happens, you’ll need some ‘variation’ deliveries that will surprise the batsman and keep them guessing. Some of the variations that fast bowlers may choose to bowl include:\n\n\n\nBouncersYorkersOff CutterLeg CutterBack of the hand ballsSplit finger deliveries\n\n\n\nI’ve written separate guides on how to bowl many of these deliveries. If you want to know how to bowl the yorker (my favourite delivery), then click here to get my specific guide on that! I’ve also put together a guide on all of the different slower balls fast bowlers can use…so click here if you’re interested in that!\n\n\n\nSpin bowlers also have their own set of variations. Here are the main ones:\n\n\n\nGooglyFlipperTop SpinnerDoosraSliderCarrom Ball\n\n\n\nMy spin bowling variations post covers each one of these in great depth, so click here if you’d like to check it out!\n\n\n\nAn Ability to Spin the Ball (If You are a Spin Bowler)\n\n\n\nIf you’re a spin bowler, the most important skill to possess is an ability to spin the ball. Once you can teach yourself to do this, you will be able to cause problems for any batsman! In my opinion this is always the skill that spin bowlers should look to build first, rather than focusing too much on accuracy! A young spin bowler that is thinking too much about their accuracy may not try to spin the ball as forcefully, and this will make well directed deliveries easier for the batsman to deal with! Personally, I would focus on spinning the ball first, and then learn to control your deliveries as you become more experienced.\n\n\n\nIf you’re a leg spinner and you want to learn how to spin the ball properly, then click here to have a look at my guide on how to bowl the perfect leg break!\n\n\n\nLikewise, if you’re an off spin bowler that is struggling to get plenty of spin on the ball, my post about bowling the perfect off break should help you out…click here to read it!\n\n\n\nHigh Levels of Cardiovascular Fitness\n\n\n\nI’ve already mentioned how important cardiovascular fitness is for batting, but it’s even more important if you’re a bowler. Especially a fast bowler! Having a healthy heart and healthy lungs will help you to keep bowling at your highest level of intensity for a longer period of time. Fast bowlers need to be able to bowl with as much energy in their 3rd spell as they did in their first spell, and good cardiovascular fitness will help you achieve this.\n\n\n\nAs I’ve already mentioned, going for a jog or running on a treadmill is a great place to start building your general fitness. Try to make small improvements in the pace and length of your run every time you do it and this will allow you to increase your fitness faster.\n\n\n\nFielding &amp; Wicket Keeping\n\n\n\nA lot of cricketers immediately overlook this part of the game, but it’s incredibly important if you want to be part of a good cricket team and have success. All players should aim to maintain a very good level of fielding skill, it can make a huge difference! Let’s now go through each skill individually…\n\n\n\nExcellent Hand-Eye Co-Ordination\n\n\n\nHand-eye co-ordination is probably the most vital skill fielders and wicket keepers can possess. No matter which role you find yourself in, your main tasks will be to stop the ball getting past you, and catch the ball if it travels towards you in the air. To do both of these things reliably, you’ll need to display good hand-eye co-ordination.\n\n\n\nA good way to improve your hand-eye co-ordination is to play little games of catch with a partner. You can even do this by yourself, by throwing a ball against a wall and catching it! Juggling a few balls together will also help you improve your hand-eye co-ordination.\n\n\n\nYou can also give your eyes a workout by using a simple drill called the ‘near-far’ drill. One of the key aspects of hand-eye co-ordination is being able to switch your focus from things that are far away to close by, so set up this little activity for yourself and give it a go:\n\n\n\nPlace one tennis ball on the floor about half a metre in front of you, and place one on the floor about ten metres in front of you.With the balls in position, concentrate your eyes on the ball closest to you and try to study the finer details of the ball.After focusing on that ball for around 10-15 seconds, switch your eyes quickly to the other ball and do the same thing with that one.Continue this process for a few minutes, getting your eyes adjusted to switching between targets\n\n\n\nA Sense of Anticipation\n\n\n\nAll the best fielders and wicket keepers will often be able to anticipate the batsman’s next move and prepare themselves to take great catches. This sense of anticipation is mostly enhanced through experience and by playing many games of cricket, but there are some basic clues that you can look out for that will give you a hint as to what a batsman is about to do.\n\n\n\nFor example, if a spin bowler is bowling, and the batsman sinks down into their stance and gets low to the ground, there is a high chance they are going to play a sweep shot. Some fielders will see this movement early and begin moving in the direction where the ball is likely to go. This can result in some spectacular catches being taken!\n\n\n\nIf the ball is swinging around a lot in the air and you’re either a wicket keeper or fielding at slip, you should be anticipating that a catch will come your way. Certain things make it much more likely that a batsman will edge the ball, and the presence of swinging conditions is definitely one of those.\n\n\n\nAs fielders and wicket keepers, we should aim to keep ourselves in an anticipatory state as each delivery is bowled. If we’re expecting the ball to come to us, then there is a higher chance that we will remain switched on mentally and be ready to catch the ball when it does come our way. The real challenge is ensuring that you stay focused throughout the entirety of a bowling innings!\n\n\n\nHigh Levels of Concentration\n\n\n\nThis skill ties nicely in to the one we’ve just discussed. To be a great wicket keeper or fielder, you’re going to have to be able to keep your concentration and focus over long periods of time in the field where not much is going on. If you’re a conventional fielder, the ball may only come towards you once every few overs, but it’s your job to deal with it when it happens. Additionally, you may only receive one opportunity at a catch per innings, so it’s vital that you’re concentrating and ready for that chance when it does occur.\n\n\n\nFor wicket keepers it’s slightly different. They will have to catch the ball after every delivery that the batsman misses, edges in their direction, or leaves alone. This means that they handle the ball a lot more than the average fielder. Even so, it’s vital that wicket keepers maintain their concentration. A sudden lapse can lead to vital mistakes which can be costly for your team.\n\n\n\nFor fielders and keepers, I like to suggest getting into a routine that helps you to concentrate. For example, in between deliveries you can walk away and have a small chat to the fielder next to you, but when the bowler is ready to bowl, you should begin your preparations. Start by getting into your basic fielding stance, which you can read more about in this post here. It’s important that when the ball is delivered you are nice and balanced, with your weight on the balls of your feet ready to push off in either direction. Once you’re in this position, remind yourself to watch the ball. Little mental cues like this help you to stay focused on the task at hand.\n\n\n\nIf this little routine doesn’t work for you, change it up a little bit and find something that does! Getting into a habit of behaving a certain way while fielding will ensure that you’re highly focused at the vital moments.\n\n\n\nQuick Reflexes\n\n\n\nSometimes when fielding the ball can come towards us incredibly quickly. If you’re a slip fielder, the ball can fly towards you off the edge of the bat and you may have less than a second to react and take the catch. Similarly, if you’re a wicket keeper up to the stumps, you will need quick reflexes to gather the ball after it passes the batsman.\n\n\n\nOne way I like to practice my reflexes is by using a reaction ball! A reaction ball is a small rubber ball with large bumps all over it. This means that when it hits a surface it will bounce off at strange, random angles. If I’m wanting to practice my reflexes, I’ll either ask a partner to throw the ball to me and make it bounce a few metres in front of me, or I’ll throw it against a wall and try to catch it. \n\n\n\nBecause you don’t know which direction the ball will travel when it hits the surface, it requires you to use quick reflexes in order to catch it! If you’re interested in buying a reaction ball I have good news for you – they’re incredibly cheap! Click here if you want to see a good one on Amazon!\n\n\n\nAnother drill I use regularly is the turn and catch drill. This one definitely requires a partner! All you have to do is stand 5 metres away from your partner with your back to them. Once you’re in position, ask them to throw a tennis ball towards on the count of 3. The ball shouldn’t bounce! As soon as they’ve finished counting to 3, you should quickly spin around and try to catch the ball. \n\n\n\nAsk your partner to throw the ball in a different area each time so that you have to react quickly to the ball being at different heights and on different sides of your body. It’s the spinning around part that makes this drill tough. It means that you won’t see the ball until it is roughly halfway towards you, and this means you’ll have to react incredibly quickly to pick up the height and direction of the ball and pull off the catch!\n\n\n\nThe faster your reflexes, the more effective you will be as a fielder/wicket keeper. So why not add some drills like the ones I’ve mentioned above to your practice sessions?\n\n\n\nGood Sprinting Speed\n\n\n\nFielders and wicket keepers will often have to sprint to recover the ball, or sprint in order to get themselves underneath a high ball to take a catch. Therefore, it is helpful if you’re able to run quickly!\n\n\n\nIf you’re looking to improve your sprinting skills, I’d recommend getting in the gym and doing some lower body resistance training to build some power in your legs. I’d also recommend doing some sprinting drills to test how fast you really are! Interval training is great for this. If I’m doing interval training, I’ll set up two cones around 40 metres apart and sprint between them. Then I’ll have 10 seconds rest before sprinting back towards the other cone.\n\n\n\nYou can continue repeating this process, with a small rest in the middle, until you have tired yourself out. Training like this really helps you to work on your speed as well as your endurance, and can also be modified to suit all ability levels. If your fitness level isn’t as high, you can include longer rest breaks in the middle, or decrease the distance of the sprint. Have a play around with this type of training and see how you do!\n\n\n\nAn Ability to Catch a Cricket Ball Reliably\n\n\n\nProbably the most important skill that a fielder and a wicket keeper can have is the ability to catch a ball. This is where the real differences are made in the fielding department. A team that has reliable fielders and an excellent wicket keeper that is not prone to dropping easy chances will be much more successful than a team that struggles in this department.\n\n\n\nIf you’re a normal fielder, then you should make sure that you’re taking part in catching drills regularly. You can perform these during your clubs practice sessions, or at home with a partner/by yourself. During the cricket season, I’d recommend doing a bit of catching practice once a week at least – it’s always good to keep on top of the basics like this! If you’re interested, I’ve written a post that includes 13 different tips for catching a cricket ball, and you can read that by clicking here!\n\n\n\nRead My Catching Tips Post If You Want To Find Out About The Orthodox &amp; Reverse Cup Catching Techniques\n\n\n\nIf you’re a wicket keeper, the more balls you can face during practice and during matches – the better. Experience is everything when it comes to this position, and you’ll find that the more you keep, the easier it becomes. When you’re in the nets with your team mates, ask your coach to set up one of the nets so that you can get behind the stumps and keep to the fast bowlers as well as the spin bowlers. It’s vital that you use your practice time to get this kind of exposure to the position! \n\n\n\nWhen I was in age group cricket, we had a couple of wicket keepers that would only keep once a week, and that was during a real match! They didn’t practice the position at all, and this inevitably led to sloppy wicket keeping and plenty of mistakes.\n\n\n\nIf there’s no room in the nets for you to get behind the stumps, then ask one of your coaches to take you aside and give you some 1 on 1 coaching where you can practice catching the ball in your gloves. There are a number of ways you can do this, including having them throw the ball to you, but you can also ask them to glance the ball off the face of a cricket bat so that it travels quickly in your direction. Little practice sessions like this are vital if you want to build the basic skills that you will need to be a solid wicket keeper.\n\n\n\nAn Ability to Throw the Ball Accurately\n\n\n\nThere will be several times during a game of cricket where fielders/keepers have to retrieve the ball in the outfield, and throw it in towards the stumps. If you’re not a great thrower of the ball, your throw may be wildly off target, or it may not even reach the stumps! This can be rather embarrassing!\n\n\n\nSome cricketers have a natural talent when it comes to throwing, and others will have to work much harder to raise their standards. If you’re trying to improve, I’d recommend practicing with a partner. First, stand around 20 metres away from each other, and aim for your partners chest as you throw the ball. The aim should be to keep the ball in the air, and for it to reach them at the right height. Repeat this about 10 times each, and if you find that the majority of your throws are accurate at this distance, you should widen the gap between yourselves to 30 metres and repeat the same drill!\n\n\n\nBasically, if you want to get better at throwing a cricket ball, you need to work on that skill by throwing a cricket ball around in practice – a lot! Over time, the muscles that are required to throw the ball forcefully will become stronger and more comfortable with the movement.\n\n\n\nConclusion\n\n\n\nIf you’re new to cricket or you’re just starting to think about playing, I hope this post has inspired to carry on your cricket journey. As you can see from the points I’ve explained, cricket is not a massively complex game. It requires a certain number of basic skills, which the top-class players will then build upon in order to become stars.\n\n\n\nThere are many other posts on this site that will help you to work on the skills I’ve outlined in this post, so feel free to check them out and you will be on your way to cricketing success in no time!"
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