Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane is learning the technique of ‘employing baseball art while batting’ and former Indian batsman Praveen Amre is assessing him to master over this. Rahane wants to employ this to perform well in 2014 ICC World Twenty20.
Rahane has played a successful role for Rajasthan Royals so far. He played under the guidance of mentor Rahul Dravid. But Amre is helping him with his ‘out of the corner’ thought which has led him to attempt to meet the criteria of shortest-format in cricket.
He gave the cause behind this usage of ‘baseball technique’ in Cricket, saying, “Australians developed throwing techniques from baseball to trivialize the injuries. You need to throw the ball at a good pace and in quick time, and the right technique of throwing is important. So I thought why not implement the hitting technique of baseball. So I experimented and tried it myself.”
“I was also following some videos of baseball. It is a game of bat and ball but only with a different type of bat (rounded), and the players could generate a lot of force in their strokes. T20 is a totally different format. I have trained him to generate power in his shots. It is crucial to perform with power in this format. In T20 power hitting matters. Instead of using just the arms and shoulders to strike the ball, I have told him to use his entire core to hit the ball,” Ranji coach said.
Rahane already has worked with Amre regarding the facing of short ball before starting the campaign against South Africa tour in December 2013. He failed to hit a century as he was dismissed at 96 in the second Test match at Kingsmead, Durban. Both of them had worked on the mental vista of the game to make this 25 years old ready for opening the innings in an adaptable order.
“For the last 3-4 days, we have been working. We have also worked on the mindset. How he will approach the game if he is opening, or what will be his mindset when he is batting lower down the order or when there is a six to be hit off the last ball. I won’t recommend this (baseball) technique for Tests and ODIs, but only for T20,” he said.
This Former player thinks that spinners have an important role in matches of sub-continent and finds that Amit Mishra can be a key bowler.
