Former South African batsman Daryll Cullinan, in a recent interview with Cricbuzz, said that even though AB De Villiers was a “freak”, he was not a good “bad wicket batsman”. He explained the concept in his own words and spoke about a few other issues. Below, are the excerpts from his interview with Cricbuzz.
Who is a good bad-wicket player?
The stodgy openers with low backlift. They are not big stroke players because there’s danger. I think VVS Laxman would fit the mould. Even Dravid comes to the mind. You really need to have a solid technique, there’s a certain skill. You need to be fearless, particularly when the ball is bouncing. The key is to be able to play late. Sachin fit into any bracket but VVS was a good example, too.
I think among our guys, Gary Kirsten was very good. Look AB is not perfect, you’ve got to point out something in his game.
This is a generation growing up watching IPL. Few of them, born after 2000, are already millionaires. Do you see that in their batting also?
I see it in all the teams, in all the young guys. To me, there’s one important thing – from a batting perspective, you can never get away from the solid foundation, a solid technique, but that sort of cricket (IPL) is being played more and more. I’ve worked with young kids and it’s attractive to them, it’s almost as if they want to be as good or a better IPL player because that’s where the rewards are there. And there’s less appreciation for being a solid Test player. [Virat] Kohli, to me, is a good example. He still plays down the ground. Still, even in T20 cricket, there are moments for good, orthodox cricket.
How’s it watching AB de Villiers batting the way he did in the Delhi Test where he just shut shop?
You know, that really exposed a lot about our batting. I don’t think too many batsmen would’ve played well under those conditions. Perhaps, the difference, which I don’t think has been appreciated, also lay in the difference of the spin attack.
What surprised me was in the first innings of that match, he came in and he was running all over the place. He just tried to look to score and do something different every single ball. I always said, AB de Villiers to me is not a good bad-wicket player. He is not as good as he is a good-wicket player. In Test cricket, you have some guys who are very good bad-wicket players but I don’t think AB likes to struggle on a bad wicket. That’s my view about him. In the first innings in the Nagpur Test, he got about 10 or 15, for the world’s best batsman that was a very odd innings.
Would you say then, that patience is a lost virtue on a current lot of players across teams?
It’s lost a little I think, because of the pace at which they play these days. But particularly coming here. I remember Shaun Pollock said once, to get your five wickets in a game, you’ve got to bowl 26-28-30 overs in a day. Patience is key. It’s about how hard you get in here, you get a feel for it and you get to just go with it.