Top 5 current batsmen and their weaknesses

Cricket has witnessed a very few complete batsmen in its history. No matter how brilliant a batsman is, he has some sort of a weakness which the opponents exploit at some stage. This is where the attitude and determination of a player is tested to the hilt. While some players rise from the ashes and make sure that they don’t play that false shot which leads to their dismissal, few works on their flaws and come back strong to make it big.

With the advent of T20 format, technique has taken a backseat in the modern cricket. But there are still a few traditional batsmen who have lighting up the sport with their crisp batting. Their textbook shots mesmerise the fans, especially those who love Test cricket. Also, some of the top cricketers love the longest form of the game where one needs resilience, patience and this is where a batsman is found wanting.

Here we bring you top five current batsmen and their weaknesses:

5. Joe Root – Gets lbw to incoming deliveries

England’s Test captain Joe Root is a part of the fab four comprising of Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith. But he has been struggling to match the rate of 100s they are scoring. While Root is still regarded the best batsman in England which he recently proved as well with a double hundred in New Zealand, he is often guilty of not converting his starts.

Rather Joe Root boasts of a worst conversion rates after crossing the 50-run mark among the quartet. He is prone to lose his balance while facing the incoming deliveries and tends to get out leg before. Pat Cummins, during the 2017-18 Ashes, found out this weakness in him. He set up with a series of outswingers and then later in the day, delivered a full inswinging ball.

Root played for the outswinger and was trapped in front of the stumps. And the pattern of similar dismissals began. All the teams across the world picked it and in the space of 18 Tests since then, England’s Test skipper had got out nine times lbw, most of them to being inswingers. His front pad seems to stay inside the line of the ball and while the bat is yet to come down, the ball comes and hits his bat.

Though he has made a minor adjustment to his technique to get rid of this weakness, there are a few areas of improvements still. He hasn’t become a complete batsman yet and the teams are getting him out early. Having said that, Joe Root is a brilliant batsman and will be itching to iron out his weakness soon.