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How to Find the Correct Cricket Batting Stance

If your goal is to score lots of runs you must make sure that you have the fundamentals in place. The most important first fundamentals are your batting grip followed by the stance. In this video and listen Steve Rixon takes you through the basics of setting up with the correct stance.

An ideal stance is one in which the entire weight of the batsman is distributed evenly on the two legs. Often batsmen develop foot, knees and back injuries because of a faulty stance, because of excessive load on either of those.

Starting with the leg position, the feet should be comfortably apart, neither too far nor too close, with the weight distributed evenly on each, and no pressure on the heels or the toes. The knees should be slightly bent, such that the weight is distributed uniformly throughout the legs.

Moving up, the back position of critical importance, since bending it too much might cause the weight to shift to it, and cause injurious troubles in the long run. The back position thus should be such that it doesn't have to carry unnecessary load. The front shoulder should be pointing straight down the pitch in the line of the stumps at the opposite end, or Mid On, and the elbow not too stiff. The head should be still, and not tilt on either side, with the eyes focusing straight and leveled.

The top hand should be resting on the front thigh, while the bat should be grounded around the toes of the back foot. Alternatively though, modern-day Australian batsmen ground their bats around the center of the space between the two feet, and from the looks of how they have performed, it can be said that that method is definitely viable.

Back-Lift:
Like the grip and the stance, the back-lift has a few basics that need to be followed, but minute adjustments should be made by the batsman, as per what suits him the best. A major mistake that beginners especially make is lifting the bat either too late or with the wrong orientation.

The bat should be lifted when the bowler is in action. A little delay and it become too late to judge with what speed to bring it down to play the ball as per its speed. The bat shouldn't be lifted either too straight, or pointing as far as the gully. It should slant towards between the first and third slips, to get the best resultant balance. However, when the bat is brought down to impact with the ball, it should come in a straight line.

The position of the hands is also of utmost importance. The bat should be lifted with the top hand, while the elbow should bend, and not be positioned too far from the body. Even while lifting the bat, the position of the eyes and head shouldn't alter, and should be maintained in the straight line with the incoming bowler's hand.

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