How to Hold a Cricket Bat

Series Summary

Cricket is perhaps the most confusing, rule happy sport known to man. With strange words like wickets, overs, and innings--which is singular--it can take a lifetime to understand, let alone master, the curious game called cricket. Even the history and reasoning of the name cricket is a matter of dispute. Some believe it came from the Old English crycc, meaning crutch, but others believe it came from the French criquet, or the Finnish krick. But whatever its history, the national sport of england isn't going anywhere, with more than 150 countries associated with the International Cricket Council, cricket is the second most popular sport in the world, falling second to football (soccer).

In this free video series, our expert Ash will teach you cricket tips and techniques that will help you be a better cricketer. He will teach you how to hold the bat, how to hold the ball, how to catch a ball under and above the shoulder, and how to field a cricket ball. Ash will teach you how to bowl an in-swinger, a yorker, a shot pitch, a bouncer, an off-spin ball, a leg-spin ball, a googly, and an off-speed ball. Ash will also teach you how to bat a front foot shot, a back foot shot, a strait drive, a cover drive, a leg glance, a gully, a sweep shot, a pull shot, and a hook shot. Finally ash will teach you how to bowl around the wicket and over the wicket so even Don Bradman, the legendary batsman, couldn't hit them.

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Ash on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip, I'm going to tell you how to hold a cricket bat and take a stance. This is how a cricket bat looks like. This part of the bat is the handle, where you hold the bat. And this is particularly the part of the bat where you play most of your shots. The lower part of the bat and the middle. You hardly play any shots from this part of the bat. Now let's see how to hold this bat. Now this is a typical way to hold a bat, where your hand touches the bat and holds, grips, firmly grips the bat here, in the top end part of the corner. And the other hand comes very close to this part. You tighten your grip and now let's see the stance. Once you take the bat in your hands, this is a typical way of standing; you keep about a foot of distance between both of your feet?s. The bat comes behind your right leg, if you're a right hander. If you are a left hander, it's the other way round. This would be firmly grounded here; your shoulder is looking towards the bowler. Some people also keep a stance, wherein the keep the bat in between the legs. But it is a better way to have the bat here. So this is how you keep the stance and hold the bat."