Why are batsmen struggling in Test cricket? Nasser Hussain, Ricky Ponting and Mike Atherton assess

Steve Smith has become a genius,” Ben Stokes continues to be excellent and Rory Burns and Marnus Labuschagne have impressed but batting positive has been tough for others.
Ahead daily five of their fourth Test, where England are planning to battle to a series-saving draw, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussain along with Ricky Ponting Describe ball is dominating bat.
Top-drawer bowling techniques, the Sky Sports trio all discussed the infiltration of all cricket about the Evaluation game, in a podcast you can download here!
Here’s the choice of this chat…
“When Alastair Cook retired he said the previous two or three seasons in his career in England was as difficult as it had been. I agree, for several reasons, mainly because there’s a crop of fast bowlers. This Australia attack has been watched by me with fantastic admiration and idea on the next day in Headingley they were out of the world. They gave nothing to the batsmen to strike through the leg and were exceptionally tumultuous.
“There isn’t a spinner in the top 10 of the bowling positions right now, although there were five, 10 decades back. Where you compare that list to now, as well as the bowlers that aren’t in the top 10, like Mohammed Shami and Stuart Broad, I believe that’s a harvest.
“The battle for a opening batsman in Test cricket is all about about the top of off stump and the best bowlers, such as Josh Hazlewood, will land it more often than the less-good ones. The best opening batsman are the people who make the best decisions concerning what to play, depart and assault in this very narrow location.
“What Jason Roy’s battles have revealed is that white-ball cricket is a completely different game. I am not saying it is not hard to open in white-ball cricket but the Kookaburra ball doesn’t fold, there might be two maximum and the roadmap is precisely the exact same for you each moment. In Test cricket, the challenges are really varied.”
“Test cricket isn’t assumed to be simple and someone has to say’I am going to do my very best to overcome this. You could say Smith is hiding in the order but he is not – he’s coming in at 30-2 each moment, so he is doing it .
“The impact of one-hundred makes it more self indulgent – Ben Stokes could not have played the innings by the end of Headingley or else he did not have these one-day shots – however you have to admit that one-day stuff is creeping to the methods of Test batting and definitely affecting it.
“What’s been evident in this series is the hard palms, when I had been brought up you’re advised to perform with soft hands and let the ball come for you. That is the point where white-ball cricket has infiltrated the game. High back-lifts, tough hands going in the ball, people being castled a good deal. Playing underneath your eyes and late seems to have gone.
“This is also an England comment a little bit, however I see men coming into Test cricket using the same tactics and same mistakes, return to county cricket then come back to Test cricket with all the exact techniques and same mistakes.”
“I believe we have seen some extreme circumstances – Headingley has been probably the toughest batting conditions I have observed in the previous 10 years any place on earth. Even the bounce was a little up and down, Old Trafford will flip in the match, which is not something you connect with a Test match in England.
“I believe there has been a true focus on requirements and making Test cricket more appealing. Meaning we want wickets to fall, the boring five-day aren’t wanted by us and we’re not seeing most of those around the world. You understand on the very first day it will spin in India, you understand in England it will seam and fold a whole good deal for you two or three weeks.
“The bowling abilities have also grown dramatically. To get Stuart Broad to bowl around the wicket to left-handed batsmen, three or even four years back that didn’t happen. I’m not certain the batting abilities have improved.
A lot more research is – in which is that one little chink inside the armour that we can expose of this guy? You cannot survive when you have flaws, you will need the guts and want to go and change objects innings into innings or mid-series.”

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