The Gentleman’s game Cricket is now famous for Players with weird batting stances.
Players With Weird Batting Stance Meaning:
It is famous because of the player’s unconventional methods and protocols. Over the years, cricket has received extraordinary batting talents having elegance and poise such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sir Viv Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, and Don Bradman. However, apart from introducing new, shorter formats in this sport; the cricket community is also witnessing newer forms of batsmanship that have even surpassed the old textbook techniques.
This bat and ball game is adapting innovative, experimental ways of smashing fours and sixes. Although many players have an almost perfect batting stance, some of the players have adopted new ways of batting. A few have bizarre stances while some hold their bat unusually. But, their unorthodox stance has helped them to face delivery and awestruck the fans with unbelievable hits.
Listed here are the Players with weird batting stance:-
- Shivnarine Chanderpaul
The exceptional yet underrated West Indies cricketer Shivnarine Chanderpaul is on the top list of having the weirdest batting stance. Irrespective of having an unorthodox style of standing he always kept his focus on the bowler. His stance was popularly known as ‘crab-like.’
Stance: He stood facing the bowler keeping his bat between his legs at the front. He’s standing at the angle of 90 degrees with eyes laying firm on the bowler and bat resting at the front, popularized his stance as the front-on stance. His chest faced the bowler and shoulder at the front of the square-leg umpire.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul has scored about 9000 runs in ODI’s and almost 12,000 runs in Test Series.
- Lance Klusener
Lance Klusener who was considered the legend in One Day International cricket had a very unusual batting stance. His stance was the most surprising among the cricket fans.
Stance: Klusener kept his quite heavy bat at a towering height which was almost parallel to his head. He used to hold his bat as a player holds in a baseball game.
Lance Klusener is known as one of the finest all-rounders during the 90s. His higher backlift stance has helped him hit numerous big hits throughout his batting career and he has scored plenty of runs.
- Kevin Pietersen
- Kevin Pietersen was widely known for his great performance in Test matches has the weirdest stance among the others. In his Test career of a total of 104 runs, he has scored 8,181 runs and about 4000 runs in ODI.
Stance: He used to keep his feet wider apart and his body’s rear part a little bit higher and the movement of his bat was flying high in the air.
Kevin was considered one of the unorthodox batsmen in the world who always kept his backlift at soaring heights. Apart from his unconventional stance, he had a sixth sense where he can judge the ball very easily than any other modern-day batsman. Sometimes, he would confuse the bowler with his quick clever movements, however, he remained concentrated on the crease line most of the time.
- Clayton Lambert
The former West Indian cricketer Clayton Lambert didn’t play much cricket throughout his career but is well known for his weird batting stance.
Stance: Clayton Lambert used to stand crouching while keeping his legs wide apart and his bat used to rest between them. The left-handed batsman used to come across the line to hit the ball delivered by the bowler. He always takes guard outside the leg stump’s crease line.
Clayton has played 5 Test matches and 12 One Day Internationals in total for both the USA and West Indies. Although his career was divided between two countries, he kept his unusual stance common in every match
- Steve Smith
The Legendary Australian skipper Steve Smith is widely known for his freakish batting stance. He uses a quite non-traditional method while batting.
Stance:
- Steve Smith had a strange look on his face while batting keeps his legs very far from each other and keeps on moving his bat. Including his bowler’s distracting techniques, he used to lurch across the crease line. Standing in this weird position, his legs kept on shuffling along the line.
Although his stance, obviously, has become a topic of mockery across the world, it has even earned him great success which is undeniable.
- Hashim Amla
The South-African Cricketer Hashim Amla is popularly known for his tons of run scores in all the formats despite his unusual batting stance. In Caribbean Premier League, he holds the first position of holding the highest number of runs.
Stance: Hashim Amla keeps his bat which points towards the gully region with keeping the bat at a higher backlift.
- George Bailey
The Australian Skipper George Bailey has shocked the team of South Africa and became the topic of laughter. Due to his unusual, funny stance during a warm-up game.
Stance: George Bailey keeps his back facing the bowler and keeps his bat in the front of the fielder. His back foot is kept extreme side-on.
He says that this stance is his key to hit the ball hard as he can. He used to turn his hip which leads his hand to hit the ball with great strength. Thus, earning more fours and sixes.
- Graham Gooch
The former legendary England batsman is the inventor of weird batting stances, especially known for the wandering backlift.
Stance:
- Graham Gooch kept his head within the line of off-stump while keeping his bat over the head, and then walking across the crease to come in parallel with the ball, once delivered.
His batting stance is considered orthodox yet simple and has become the inspiration of many new-generation batsmen.
Apart from the above players with their weird batting stances, there are a few more players who gained popularity with their unorthodox batting style who are: Pakistani batsman Fawad Alam who is considered as the second Chanderpaul with having more gap between the legs than Shivnarine Chanderpaul; the South African cricketer Mike Rindel; The Indian batsman Abhishek Nayar who his popular due to his crouching stance which has proven effective throughout his career till now; and another Pakistani batsman Ijaz Ahmed who has earned a nickname – The axeman due to his quirky batting stance which looks like he is chopping woods on the field.
