Today I am sharing simple tips for cricket batting practice at home alone or with 1 friend. Most of the time you need only one more person with you. I have also shared Sachin Tendulkar batting practice secrets which made him a big cricketer but unfortunately most people do not know about his practice secrets.
We will move from basic to advanced and you might have heard about some tips earlier but I am sure while reading the full content you will find the unique practice tips.
How to practice cricket batting alone at home 5 tips
1 Practice in front of mirror
This is the most basic and important practice step. In this you don’t need any person with any ball except a cricket bat. If you don’t have a bat at the moment you can simply take a stick or flat furniture for a few days but later arrange a bat. Maintain a good distance from the mirror, take a stance and feel that the ball is coming towards you.
Try straight drives and watch your elbow closely. Mirror practice is mostly done for keeping the bat straight. You should not try pull or hook shots or try them a few times only. Your focus should be on straight drive and keeping the bat straight most of the time. After practicing straight drive for 25 times it’s time to practice a flick shot for 25 times.
This practice will build a habit in your body for particular shot posture so do practice it seriously. This practice needs to be done two times a day morning and evening. It’s good to make sessions for particular shots and in each session you can practice 25 times a shot.
2 Shadow practice
In this practice also you don’t need any person and you can do this practice batting at home alone. This time you don’t need a bat. Instead you can imagine a bat in your hand and watch your shadow and play the shots you like most. You can also hold a stick for shadow practice and practice should be done for at least 30 minutes. This type of cricket practice will start developing habits in your body and mind towards the particular shot.
3 Remove the tennis ball cover and play on the wet floor.
This is one of the most effective practice and you don’t need a cricket kit for this practice. You just need a cricket bat, tennis ball and water in a bucket. Only two people are enough to do this cricket practice at home or near by home. Select a corridor having a wall behind so that you don’t need a wicket keeper.
Remember the floor should be cemented, so that you can place water on it. Keep the bucket in some distance from the batsman and its batsman duty to spread a couple of mugs of water at the ball pitching area. You can decide which type of ball you want to practice and spread some water over there. It is important to pick up an old tennis ball and remove its cover.
Removing cover will allow the ball to skid on the wet floor just like a leather ball in real cricket matches. Yes you will exactly feel that you are playing on a leather ball. You must mark on the back wall for slip catches and wicket keeper catches outside off stump. If a bat edge is taken by the ball and goes straight to the back wall batsman shall be called out.
Cricket rules must be tough for batsmen to improve their batting skills. This is one of the most effective cricket batting practices which can easily be done at home without having many people, only two are enough. The great Sachin Tendulkar has done this type of practice to one of the fastest bowlers of the world, Shoaib Akhtar. Beside going through regular cricket practice drills Sachin used to pick the unique practice strategies which made him a genius batsman.
4 Start playing on the roof to improve batting timing
People who are thinking how to improve timing in cricket must follow this practice. Playing on the roof is good for improving the batting technique. If the ball went down after touching the batsman’s bat or body he/she should be called out. This will enhance the batting skills of a person.
When a batsman will try to connect the ball with timing not power resulting in improved batsman’s foot work. If footwork is improved there are high chances your batting timing will automatically improve. It is easy to practice front foot and back foot defenses on the roof. The correct back lift is also enhanced during roof cricket.
One more important step you need to improve is to make a rule in which if a ball connects the bat and the fielder catches it with one hand after a bounce then the batsman should be called out. This will definitely improve the batting skills and you will notice automatically your batting timings are getting better.
5 Play with heavy bat or two or three bats
When you start playing in the live cricket match due to the pressure you bat automatically gets heavy and feet become heavier. To overcome this situation match practice is needed regularly because practice is only the solution to everything. You can do meditation for concentration of mind. While practicing, try to play with a heavy bat for some time.
During the match you can also take the bat of your partner and flow it a couple of times with your bat. We have seen Mahendra Singh Dhoni doing lots of time during live cricket matches. He used to do a shadow practice with 2-3 bats to overcome the original bat weight during the live match.
Read this – How to bat longer in cricket 5 best batting tips
Sachin tendulkar cricket secrets
Sachin Tendulkar used to practice with a slightly cut golf ball. He used to intentionally cut the ball from one side to practice the movement of fast bowlers. Golf ball has a decent bounce on the cement floor and it’s difficult to play if it is cut from one side. Sachin Tendulkar does this type of batting practice several times to overcome the movement of fast bowlers specially in England and Australian Cricket pitches like Perth.
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