Kumar Sangakkara differentiates between slogging and power hitting

Former Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara recently answered questions from his fans on Sri Lanka cricket. The platform was open for all fans to throw their questions into the master of the game. Questions came in flooding from all corners on the island cricket team. The most remarkable among those was the one about the dearth of power hitters in Sri Lankan cricket.

A question from a fan from Colombo mentioned that the power hitters are ruling the game at the moment. No wonder why England and West Indies reached the finals of World T20 this year. He also added that players like Jos Buttler and AB de Villiers have been proving that slogging is an art too. However, the concern for the fan was that there is no such hitter to be found in the Sri Lankan cricket.

With the cricket becoming a big hitter game, this is certainly a worrying prospect for the country. Kumar Sangakkara, in a very perfect manner, gave a solid reply. Sangakkara clearly differentiated that slogging and big hitting are two different skill sets.

He quoted, “I think there is a significant difference in what you term ‘slogging’ and power hitting in cricket. Slogging is something you have seen on and off, when pinch hitters come in and throw the bat at everything, but that is definitely not the art of power hitting.”

He further added that the likes of AB and Jos do not slog but rely a great deal on timing and technique. “Jos Buttler, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli and various other batsmen from around world, including Andre Russell and Chris Gayle, don’t often slog. They have a lot of power, they watch the ball very carefully, and they execute with great bat speed and technique,” Kumar Sangakkara added.

Trying to analyse how to get such players, the former skipper believes that power hitting needs a technical base. The players should be good enough to negate the turn and the swing from the wicket.

“To be a successful power hitter, you need to start off with a very good technical base. It is important to have a combination of players in one side. You also need players that are adept in negating swing and seam, and also turn, but who can also hit boundaries when the occasion requires you to,” said the former wicket-keeper.

“Sri Lanka historically have not had a large number of power hitters, although we had Sanath Jayasuriya, who was unbelievable for us, but I think if you take our performances from 2007 to now, we have been one of the most consistent sides in T20 and ODI cricket, especially in World Cups. It is because we had a variety of players with a great combination of power and touch and we also had a very good varied bowling attack,” he added.

Lastly, he conceded that having power hitters is always an advantage. To develop hitters, the grass root levels should be strong. Till the time that happens, Sri Lanka cricket must be smart with whatever it is having right now.

“We can try and have methods which would encourage batsmen from a young age to explore the art of power hitting so that by the time they come to the first-class cricket level and graduate to A division or international cricket, they would have mastered the art,” he mentioned.

“But until that time, we have to play our brand of cricket and be smart with it. What we found out was that, if you are smart with it and use the variety we have, that brings about victories in crucial games,” conceded Kumar Sangakkara.