Right isn't always right: Why batting left-handed is better

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS – APRIL 21: Brian Lara of West Indies salutes the crowd after being run out by Kevin Pietersen of England during the ICC Cricket World Cup Super Eights match between West Indies and England at the Kensington Oval on April 21, 2007 in Bridgetown, Barbados.

According to researchers, between 10 and 13% of the general population is left-handed. Yet if your experience of the world were limited to watching cricket(some of us can wish), then you would be forgiven for believing that the ratio is much higher. This is so because an examination of the top eight international teams reveals that left-handed batsmen are running at around 30% of those occupying positions 1-6 in the batting order. In fact, when Australia visited the Caribbean earlier this year, there were seven left-handers in the combined top six of both teams for the last two tests. The West Indies had Kieran Powell, Darren Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Narsingh Deonarine, while Australia had David Warner, Ed Cowan, and Michael Hussey.

The question then becomes: why?

Is there some quality inherent in left-handers that allow them to progress to the highest level of the game in relatively greater numbers than their right-handed brethren? Do the laws of the game favour them? Or is it just that bowlers are more adept at bowling to right-handers?

Maybe it is some combination of all three. Scientists say that the left-handers’ possession of right brain to left-side wiring gives them increased spatial awareness and the capacity to think and react quickly to objects in three dimensions. Skills, I am sure, that serve batsmen well when negotiating a cricket ball approaching them at high pace.

Also, the fact that a batsman cannot be given out LBW (the third most common form of dismissal) once the ball lands outside the leg stump provides a disproportionate benefit to left-handed batsmen. A right-hander bowling over the wicket, which is the most common variety batsmen face, has to land his delivery in line with the stumps in order to gain an LBW verdict. Very few deliveries of this type will go on to hit the stumps because of the angle of the delivery and there often has to be deviation back towards the stumps for there to be any chance of LBW.

The right-handed batsman facing a left-hander bowling over the wicket will benefit similarly, but the prevalence of right arm bowlers means that he will face many more deliveries that place him at risk of being out LBW than his left-handed counterpart.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 04: Adam Gilchrist of Australia appeals for a run out during the Commonwealth Bank Series One Day International second final match between Australia and India at the Gabba on March 4, 2008 in Brisbane, Australia.

Furthermore, bowlers are not as comfortable, nor as proficient bowling to left-handers. Getting out caught is the most common form of dismissal in cricket, and I would wager that batsmen are caught behind or in the slips more often than elsewhere in the field. Opening bowlers, especially, facilitate this type of dismissal by swinging the new ball away from the batsman.

Left-handers, however, do not face this type of delivery as often as those batting the other way round. This, I believe, is one reason there is such a proliferation of left-handed opening batsmen in test cricket. England has two, as does Australia, while most other test nations have at least one.

Dale Steyn, the most lethal pace bowler going around, is apparently so uncomfortable bowling to left-handers that he is often kept away from the new ball when faced with openers of that variety. Experts say that the slight change of action, triggered by the difference in line is often enough to diminish or even eliminate the swing that the fast bowler coming over the wicket would normally generate. Bowling round the wicket — a tactic sometimes used against the left-hander—also results in a change of action and most bowlers are not as comfortable doing it.

To emphasize this point, let us turn to the former coach on England and current coach of India, Duncan Fletcher:

Over the years I have had much work to do with a succession of right-arm seam bowlers who have struggled to bowl around the wicket to left handers…I have had to explain the simple laws of geometry in order to help them with, what was becoming for them, a mountainous task.

What happened with all these bowlers was that, when bowling around the wicket to left handers, they were not moving their bowling marker (where they commence their run-up) far enough across to their right. If you do not run in from wide enough there is only one thing that can enable the ball to land somewhere near where you want it to – a change of action. And that can spell all sorts of problems.

‘Behind the Shades’, p. 129-130

Yet there are hazards that are particular to the left-handed batsman as well.

NAPIER, NEW ZEALAND – MARCH 25: Stephen Fleming plays a shot during day four of the Third Test match between New Zealand and England at McLean Park March 25, 2008 in Napier, New Zealand.

The rough created outside the off-stump by the follow-through of the right arm bowler readily comes to mind. This can be a nightmare to southpaws if the opposition has bowlers capable of exploiting the vagaries that it can provide.

There is also a theory that lefties are imperiled by the ball slanting across them — a delivery the right-hander does not face as often. But I tend to disagree. A good player is not overly concerned about the angle of a delivery, rather it is when it deviates from its original path, especially when it does so late, that it poses particular danger.

On the whole, it is abundantly clear that the cricketing gods have bestowed greater blessings on the left-handed batsmen. It is in recognition of this fact that former Zimbabwean Batsman, Alistair Campbell, originally a right-hander, was induced by his father to bat the other way round.

When it is considered that batsmen like Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Alastair Cook and Michael Hussey are all natural right-handers who bat left-handed, then coaches should contemplate encouraging their young right-handed charges to improve their chances of success by becoming southpaws.