Top five hard-hitting batsmen in modern-day cricket

With the advent of T20, the game of cricket has changed a great deal. The orthodox, technically correct batsman whose primary concern was to execute a well-timed shot between two fielders has been displaced by the innovative, modern batsman who is not concerned with placement any more, but muscles the ball out of the ground. While some purists may consider this a flaw that has crept into the game, there is a lot of skill and practice that goes into such an effort. Plus it may be argued that such shot-making is often born out of circumstances which emerge more and more with the shortening length of the game.

The counter argument, however, will be that most of such batsmen are not technically proficient players turned into big swashbucklers; they are rather unorthodox cricketers from a very young age who did not change their technique because what they did was effective. The point is that the change in the way the game is played has accepted the mutation that has come about in the style of batting. Such players were present if you seek the domestic circuits of yesteryears, but they were never propelled to the international stage as they were filtered out by the requirements of the game. The new set of circumstances favour a new direction of evolution and as the big-hitting unorthodox players find success, it is exponentially replicated in the new generation of players.

Here is a list of five players who can muscle the ball, but they do not necessarily have an unorthodox technique, illustrating yet another facet of the game:

5. Brendon McCullum

The Kiwi batsman has an aggressive instinct that forms the nucleus of an attacking batsman. None of the players on this list premeditate their shots. They have the ability to adjust to the merit of the ball and use their attacking instinct to guide them. McCullum can start hitting the ball from the very first minute, which is a unique skill. He is not an unorthodox batsmen in many ways, but uses his power to great effect. He has a very distinct way of using his feet; he usually does a little shimmy in T20 cricket or if he stays in his crease, he plants a big front foot forward. Even if the ball is dug short, he can stay on the front foot, pull his weight back, and use his excellent hand-eye coordination to play an effective shot. He is evidence to the fact that being a big-hitter is not only about brute power, but attitude as well.

4. Shane Watson

He is a technically sound batsman who has developed his batting by facing fast bowling on Australian pitches in domestic Test matches. It is amazing how he can play in multiple gears, but he is at his best when he attacks the bowling. Shane Watson likes to play with a straight bat and hits it over the bowler’s head consistently. He rocks on to the backfoot and gets under the ball against the spinners to hit those massive sixes on the leg side. He does not innovate excessively and uses pretty much the same technique in all forms of the game and is still very successful.

3. Kieron Pollard

The big-hitting West Indian has earned his fame by plying his trade in the Indian Premier League and other such T20 competitions. He is the example of the modern cricketer born out of the T20 revolution. Kieron Pollard largely depends on brute strength and can hit a good ball for a six. He is very deadly against the spinners with his big stature and long reach as he can pick up the ball on the pitch and lift it for a massive six. He has a good hand-eye coordination, which is a gift that all hard-hitting batsmen have. He has not been able to prove his talent in the Test match arena so far, but he is not a mindless player in any sense.

2. MS Dhoni

The Indian captain is a proven commodity in all formats of the game. He has the runs, the ability to play long innings, and the average; in short, he has every stat that is required to prove the worth of a batsman. And yet his technique is so different from what coaches would like to inculcate in young batsmen. He followed a breed of batsmen who were technically India’s best products: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and so on. But he seems to have learnt his trade in the maidaans and the streets with the tennis ball. His helicopter shot is a deadly invention of the modern game that can decimate the greatest weapon of death bowling – the yorker. He manages to produce tremendous backlift that generates a huge amount of power which reflects in Dhoni’s reflex movement after the shot has been completed. His ability to take on spin and fast bowlers alike at will under harsh circumstances has made him one of the most feared batsmen in modern-day cricket.

1. Chris Gayle

The Gayle-Storm. A very appropriate term for what Chris Gayle’s strength can do, and yet he is not a one-dimensional cricketer. The fact that he has two triple centuries to his name is testament to the fact that he has been effective in Test cricket too. His innings of 175 in the 2013 edition of the IPL saw him conducting a mass slaughter of the hapless PWI bowling attack. He’s got a fairly simple technique that involves minimal footwork, use of innate power and a deadly hand-eye coordination. He is equally effective against fast bowlers and spinners and has made a reputation for stealing matches away from the opposition single-handedly. Unlike most players on this list who are middle and lower-order batsman, Gayle opens the innings and makes an immediate, heavy impact on the game that debilitates the opposition.