The low arts of Shane Watson

It was a typical low, slow subcontinental pitch; a left-arm spinner with a round-arm action was operating, and the ball was only marginally short on middle and leg - the kind that forces you to be a little wary of the low bounce and makes you offer a straight bat instead of a horizontal one. Most batsmen, including ones from the subcontinent who grew up on these surfaces, would happily dab the delivery into a vacant on-side area and be satisfied with the outcome - mostly a single or a two. Years of batting on these surfaces have taught these men to bring out the horizontal bat shots only when the ball is really short and they are 100% sure of the bounce. Unlike when you play with a straight bat, where you can check your shot and convert an aggressive shot into a defensive prod even at the last second, once you've committed to a horizontal bat shot, there's no looking back. You're forced to execute it for good or ugly.

All of this only seems to be of academic interest whenShane Watson is batting, for he dispatches every short ball deep into the stands on the on side, even on these pitches. Where others are busy protecting their pads and wickets from the low bounce, he has found a way not just to make contact every single time but also to get under, getting elevation. How does he do it so efficiently?

Watson's trigger moment is among the unique facets of his batting. He goes deep into the crease with his back leg and keeps the toes of his front foot mobile, barely touching the ground. In doing so, he transfers his body weight completely onto the back foot just before the bowler releases the ball. This is, in fact, the antithesis of what the coaching manual recommends, which is that the batsman should distribute his body weight equally between both feet - the rationale being that equal distribution of weight makes both forward and backward movements easier.

In Watson's mode of operating, he prepares for the full ball first. Since the weight is already on the back foot, the forward movement becomes fluid, manifested in his long front-foot stride. But the moment the ball is even slightly short, instead of using a proper forward press to transfer the weight on to the front foot (like most other batsmen do, consuming precious time) before transferring it to the back foot again, he digs his front toe into the ground and uses that movement to transfer the weight and then swivels on to the back foot. In the process, he also clears the front leg quite nicely, which allows his arms a free swing. Watson's unique method of loading and unloading both feet to transfer weight gives him a precious few extra moments to pull even marginally short balls without fuss