The modern-day cricket is no short of surprises, as modern-day cricketers are not shy from being fearless and that’s what inspires them to try out unorthodox, innovative shots. Here is my list of players who turned the heads with their innovative stroke-making.
Dilscoop – First of all we should know that the Dilscoop is different from Mariller’s one, as Mariller’s one mainly targeted the fine leg region, but the Dilscoop(invented by TM Dilshan) played over the keeper’s head. What’s unique about Dilscoop is we don’t see many players trying it. Dilshan first played this unique shot in 2010 and since then used this shot quite frequently in matches. After the retirement of Dilshan personally, I haven’t seen any cricketer trying this except AB Devilliers. So, this shot is indeed unique one in world cricket and would be framed in the mind of ardent cricket followers as one of the best and toughest shots in Cricket.
Marillier’s scoop – From the name only we can guess after whom the shot was named. In the era when hardly any player could think of playing any innovative shot, Dougie Marillier pulled off something from his couch which stunned the world.
In 2002 against India, the world first witnessed the effectiveness of his innovation, as he hammered every Indian bowler on his way to 24 balls 56 and Zimbabwe won the match out of nowhere. But that was not the first time Marillier first played that shot, as he had already applied it to perfection against Australia in 2001 against the great Glenn McGrath. Though Marillier’s cricket career has been a short one in that short span he had given Zimbabwe many important victories with both bat and ball and has gifted the world cricket “Scoop” which has been used by many other great players later, but nobody did it so perfectly so often like the architect of the shot.
Switch Hit – Switch hit is probably the most eye- soothing unorthodox shot in cricket, but there aren’t many players, who have attained perfection while executing this shot. This innovative shot was first played by Kevin Pietersen as per my knowledge and he used to play this shot quite often and even he used this shot in test matches. Switch hit involves a batsman effectively changing from a right-hander to a left-hander and vice versa for executing this shot.
The effectiveness of this shot comes when the opposition captain jam-packs the batsman’s strong side, and one side remains open giving the batsman a chance to score runs if he can play the switch hit.
It completely dismantles the bowler’s ideas and field setting as it involves a total change in batsman’s position and stance suddenly. Keven Pietersen even once got warned for attempting this shot, in 2012 but KP never really cared about it as the warning seemed very baseless. We can nowadays see few players continuing KP’s legacy especially in leagues like BBL and IPL.
Upper Cut– It is much debatable as who used to play this innovative shot in a better way. Our very own Sehwag and Sachin used to play this shot frequently, and for me, Sachin has been more comfortable and used to execute this shot in a better way. It is among those out of the textbook shot which brings much pleasure to our eyes. Nowadays it the most common innovative shot used by many players, as it is relatively easy to execute this shot in a proper manner. Nowadays the likes of KL Rahul, David Warner, Jos Buttler use this shot frequently in their innings. It is among the trending shots that are played by modern-day cricketers.
Helicopter Shot – This shot needs no introduction as it is an emotion for every cricket fan, specially MSDians. The shot was though introduced in the International cricket by Sachin Tendulkar in 2002, but the man who made this shot as his trademark shot is MS Dhoni. He has played this shot numerous times in International and IPL cricket. It is that shot which was played in 2011 World Cup final by Dhoni, as the final shot, which ended our 28 years wait to see India lifting the World Cup. Though due to age going against Dhoni saw him not using this shot often, as it needs tremendous shoulder power, there emerged a guy who has now almost made this as his trademark shot. Hardik Pandya, the swashbuckling new finisher of India has used this shot quite frequently in the recent past especially in IPL. Hopefully, along with Hardik, there would emerge more players in International cricket who would try this, as Dhoni’s time in cricket has almost come to an end, and we won’t want our WC final hero’s trademark shot to remain as a memory in our hearts.
360 degree– Well, 360 is not the name of any shot, but this man is an epitome level player who sets standards for others thorough his perfection in executing any copybook or any orthodox shots. AB is a synonym and an example of “Mr. Perfectionist” in cricket. There has been hardly any shot left in the history of cricket which AB Devillers haven’t tried or haven’t played.
There are uncountable examples when he shocked the whole world by his shot selection and playing. He has the tremendous ability to bring up a unique shot out of nowhere in a pressure situation, and most of the time executing it to perfection. Pull, reverse sweep, hook to Switch hit, Dilscoop and Helicopter shot he can play it all to perfection.
He is actually no inventor of any particular shot but there is hardly any shot he can’t play and can execute it to perfection without much effort. The one-shot though he excels in is to shuffle to offside and hit the ball towards square leg for six.
He is an example to every player around the world who wants to attain perfection in the cricket field. The 36 years old superhuman has already retired from INTL cricket(though he might return only to play WT20 to help South Africa), so I would suggest any cricket fan to enjoy AB till he is around us to entertain us through his game in the leagues.
Flamingo Defence – This name might not be too familiar among the cricket fans as this doesn’t offer any shot and doesn’t provide any opportunity of scoring. But indeed this defense in a unique one. The player who played this shot for the first time, not any classy batsman. Till now this style of defense has been done by Trent Boult, whom we know for his fierce left-arm pace. Boult first used this defense back in a test match in 2015 at Gabba, Australia. Coming to bat at no.11, a ball of Starc from round the wicket saw Boult moving across and defend the ball and additionally lifting the front foot, which made the accurate impression of flamingo, and the commentators soon named it as “ Flamingo Defence”. It is the latest addition in the book of unorthodox shots, which made the current no.1 batsman Steven Smith appreciate.
These are the innovative shots or ideas which has impressed me the most, maybe there are few unorthodox ways of batting missing like Smith’s way of leaving the ball by moving his body laterally while shouting no to his partner, but I’ve tried to put the best shots or innovative ideas in my list here accordingly.
Root reverse scoop – The latest addition to the list is from a batsman you will least expect, as he is most elegant playing the normal cricket strokes, but that doesn’t mean he will lag behind on the modernities of cricke as the reverse scoop which Root plays has almost 100% accuracy with maximum result. Recently also he completed his half century against Australia in the 4th test playing the reverse scoop for six, and now it seems he has the same confidence playing it like he plays the cover drive.
