Handle Grips and Bat Weight

The number of rubber grips on the bat, is another, which has caught the imagination of batsman. Clive Llyod used four to five grips on his bat. Clive being big builds and had quite large hands, hence was comfortable having those numbers of grips and it varied in accordance to the thickness of the rubber grip. Youngster following him would also add those numbers of grips as that Clive used, without releasing the physical aspect.

And most important, which Lala Amarnath, believed was the feel of the handle of the bat in the hands and would say the bat should feel like a cane in the hand. Sunil Gavaskar used some time two grips and that too to cushion the jar that he felt defending fast bowler. Vinod Kambli who in his young exuberance days, used five-six grips, and had come down to two, later in his career. Again I would like to emphasis here that comfort is what we should be looking for in selecting the number of the grips on the bat.

Weight of the bat

A lot depends on the strength of the batsman, his preference for strokes and many great Test cricketers, who used heavier bats changed it to lighter bat while playing on bouncy and fast pitches. Mind you it is difficult to control a heavy bat once the downswing starts. If the ball deviates more the expected, to changing the stroke and controlling it shall be quite difficult.

Clive llyod, Lance Cairn were known to use very heavy bats and remember they were strongly built. Presently Sachin Tendulkar uses a heavy bat and also Surav Ganguly, who had a bat with one longer blade, and they found pulling the ball in Australia a difficult proposition.

Selecting the Right Bat

Young up and coming cricketers usually make a mistake of following their Idols in the selection of a bat. They get easily influenced in deciding the weight of the bat. Selection of a bat should depend on the player’s Height, Strength level, Skill level, range of strokes and approach to the game.

One of the methods that I could recommend is to lift the bat with the top hand, holding the bat up at shoulder high. If the player could keep control of the bat firmly in that position for 30-40 seconds, than that is the right weight of the bat for him. When his strength level improves over a period of time he can opt for heavier bat. The key is to have control of the bat and then can he has better chance of controlling different strokes.