Siddhant Lohani

Siddhant Lohani

   In a way, there is a bit risk in writing about a newly emerging batter, in saying that he should not be dropped in any matches for the next 10 games in both T-20 or 50 over format. Risk is there because I do not have sufficient information about the multiple dimenions of his game. The informtion that has come out via the performance against Jersy, and againt the Jayasuria led world eleven gives me an instincitive confidence to state that he is going to be a big batsman to play for Nepal. About this, i have put forth an explantion in another essay.

Essence of his ability and cricketing decision making can be understood from the result he manages to achieve -- he can connect (not miss, or mistime) big shots. The cricketing shots he unleashes are bit unorthdox but he plays them with straigtish bat which makes his batting exciting, prolific and dangerous. For instance he can create a helicopter shot straight above the sight-screen.

On a previous occassion I have attemted an explantion about his technique. Indeed, one of his strong shot is square cut/drive, he plays this shot with such self belief and timing that it is a boundary scoring shot for him. For this, ability to watch the ball closely upto right under the eyes, patience, and balance in the crease is a must. Since he can hit helicopter and all those swing shots, for this patience, balance and ability to play the ball late, and most importantly absence-of-premeditation is important. Because of these reasons he can get under the ball and hit big. When the bowler is on his mark to bowl, a batman cannot premediate and say that he will hit this ball for a six since run-rate is getting low. A batsman instead if directs to himself that he has six balls coming from this bolwer, and he will have to take chance on the weaker of the availabe six balls. Because run-rate is getting low, or it is time to produce big shot. By this method he is not premeditating but instead is enjoyably maintain is calm and focus.

If you listen to Dean Jones in commentary, he highlights this aspect of batting and proposes that batter who makes late decision and not premeditate will produce a substantive or impact-filled inning. One reason for the success of Siddhat could be that he does not premediate and plays according to the goodness of the ball, and sees the ball to the last moment and decides to play his shot late.

A confident batman is dangerous, an overconfident one is not a threat because he throws his wicket away. Siddhant must be a confident batman. When Paras khadka was picked up in the senior national side, he was bit over-awed by the sight of other senior player. May be Nepal's schooling sytem and family enviornment has to do with such response because the teachers,parents, coaches, are more often a source of nervousness. They are only on rare occasion source of happiness and no hesitation(may be 10 percent chance). Indeed as a batsman Siddhant
s strenght is visible in the fact that he is so creatively confident right in his debut tour from the seniour national side. A confident player has good shot selection skill. An over-confident or under-confident player either becomes excessively defensive or stupidly over-attacking.

In the mean time, I have to admit I am still short on information on siddhant, the next 10 inning will suffice to hypothesize how big a player he will become. The quality of a batsman can be judged by how he gets out, by the mode of his dismissal. Does he get out on a good ball, or on the ball which does not deserve a wicket?

The reason for Nepal's batting failure has to do with the failure of the opening pair and repeated dismissal of number three batsman on the score of 15-25. Thus early wickets and consequent drop in the run-rate has been destroying team nepal batting performance. To counter this I think we need a CHANGE in the batting. I would make the following changes. I am much confident that the following Orthodox squad will be much successful in both 50 over and T-20 format.

I am strongly against other unsuccessful or partially successful player in the crucial opening and number three role. These batting positions have been the root of our terrible failure, because of repeated and predictable early wicket and drop in the of run-rate.

1. Sharad

2. G. Malla

3. Anil

4. Raju (If he does not score runs consistently then we can think about other available option.)

5. Paras (floater. If situation calls for, he can bat a bit down to perform the role of a finisher.)

6. Sagar

7. Mehbob (If he does not score runs consisently then we can think about other option)

8. Siddhant

9. Sompal

10.Basant

11. Avinash

If this squad fails then only we can(and have to) say that Nepal's batting is poor, not at the top associate level. With this batting order if Nepal begins to win matches against a top team then the past failure have to be interpreted in different way. For batting this is the last option, nonetheless, in my opinion a most strong looking squad because the the top order is robust. Failure of the top order has damaged the batting big time in so far as batting is concerned.

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