Our cricket bat sensor expert Neo on various strategies that cricket enthusiasts can use for cricket batting practice at home, even during rains.

If you think it’s only spectators who enjoy the rain, then Neo will prove you wrong. You too can make the best of the rainy season by practicing various cricket practice drills at home.

Do you find difficulties in continuing batting practice due to rain? 

Does your game’s weak form make you worried about your performance during the upcoming cricket season? 

If your answer is yes, this blog is for you. 

Believe it. You are not alone who are worried about their lost form.

Although practice is crucial in excelling as a cricketer, sometimes weather and other unavoidable circumstances do not allow you to practice on the ground. 

So, rather than waiting for a clear sky, you can adopt self-in-door practice strategies and keep the flow of your improvement going on.

Self-in-door Batting Practice Strategies

Shadow Batting

It is a simple drill method that a batter can try even at home.

You May Need:

Although you may not need any equipment for shadow practice, you can still use your cricket bat, cricket bat sensor, and stumps if you wish to.

Method of Shadow Practice: 

You must have observed during a cricket match how a batter often imitates a shot when he gets out. As if the batter is trying to imitate how the shot should have played out.

Or sometimes, when a batter starts a new inning and enters the ground, they stretch their arms while hitting an empty shot in the air. 

With Shadow batting, the batter imitates a shot by visualizing a particular delivery (being bowled to him). In response, the batter hits a shadow shot with the right footwork and bat swing. 

Benefits of Shadow Cricket Practice:

1. It helps in muscle memory and keeps the body in form.
2. With Shadow practice, the batter visualizes a ball, which stimulates the brain. This helps batter to train their brain and address different types of deliveries easily. 
3. It helps the batter to plan rather than letting the bowler dictate the gameplay.
4. Even during shadow practice, the cricket bat sensor app’s insights can help- the batter master bat swing.

Practice with a Hanging Cricket Ball 

 I know many of you must have tried this technique at home, but you can still use this technique as an alternative during the rainy season at home.

You May Need:

• Cricket Bat with smart sensor
• Cricket Ball with string 
• Hook 

If you do not have a ball with string at home, you can try one ”desi jugaad”. Put one leather ball in socks and tie it with string to a hook.

Method of Hanging Cricket Ball: 

While practicing with the hanging ball, the batter first swings the ball forward, and when it comes back, the batter hits it forward with the Bat. You can adjust the string’s length, which will further help you to practice various ball-length deliveries.

Benefits of Shadow Practice:

1. You can analyze your batting parameters like sweet spot metrics on the cricket sensor app.
2. The batter can improve their sweet spot skills.
3. It helps in improving hand and eye coordination.
4. It helps batters to enhance their vertical shots.

Power-Hitting Drill Practice

Power hitting becomes more crucial in T20 formats where hitting creates a tremendous difference. Therefore, with the right technique and intense practice, you too can improve your power hitting.

You May Need: 

1. Cricket bat with str8bat cricket bat sensor
2. A few Tennis Balls
3. Open space or net

Method of Self-Power Hitting Cricket Practice:

1. Find an open area, like your home’s unoccupied garage. 
2. Hold the Bat in your non-dominant hand and the ball in another hand.
3. Toss the ball in the air, and let it bounce once.
4. As the ball takes a bounce, you grip the Bat firmly, move forward, and hit the ball powerfully.
5. You can go for lofted and grounded shots depending on the conditions of your surroundings.
6. Repeat the procedure with another ball now.

Benefits of Shadow Practice:

1. By practicing the power-hitting drill, you can work on your batting parameters like the timing of the shot, sweet spot hits, and impact speed metrics.
2. It is an excellent way to upscale your power hitting.

Stepping Down the Wicket

This drill can help you to improve your footwork, mainly to face spin bowlers.

You May Need: 

1. Cricket Bat with cricket bat sensor
2. A few tennis balls
3. A Partner

Method of practicing ‘stepping down the wicket’ drill: 

You will find this drill helpful in mastering the swift movements that are required to step down the crease to play attacking shots.

1. Keep a light batting stance and remain focused to step forward.
2. Let your partner stand 3 – 4 feet away with the ball in the outreach arm. 
3. Your partner will drop the ball and move away, whereas you will swiftly come forward and hit the ball before it takes another dip and bounces back.

Benefits of Stepping Down the Wicket drill :

1. The batter can find improvement in their forward footwork.
2. Helpful in mastering the deliveries against spin bowlers.
3. The batter can analyze their batting metrics on the cricket bat app and explore their back lift, timing, and sweet spot insights. 
4. With the cricket bat sensor app’s metrics, the batter will draw better insight that will reinforce the cause-and-effect relationship between batting and batting parameters better.

The Final Message for Cricket Enthusiasts on Indoor Cricket Practice

Cricket batting is all about batting technique, skills, and practice. Although nothing can beat ground practice, still, you can make the best of the drilling. Refined Batting is more about skillful training rather than net or cricket academy practice. 

Thankfully you have the power of the best cricket practice buddy, i.e. str8bat cricket bat sensor. A cricket bat sensor takes note of the Bat’s every movement. Therefore, when you try shadow shots or hanging ball shots, your cricket bat sensor maintains a record of your batting parameters. Moreover, a home-based drill can be easy gameplay for a batter but not for your sensor. It analyses your batting parameters on the same scale as it does on the ground. That means you can upscale your game even during the rain.

Neo is the Mascot of str8bat Cricket Bat Sensor

He is from the Proxima Centauri planet system. When Neo came to earth and saw the game of cricket, he experienced mixed emotions. He was happy and at the same time disappointed. Neo admired the way people love the game of cricket and worship the players. But when Neo saw that we are still relying on traditional means of cricket coaching where there is no proper technical mechanism for identifying the cricket batting mistakes, he got disappointed.

Neo is the techno-savvy mascot, he spent several months in the sports lab and helped str8bat to innovate their first cricket bat sensor. He loves cricket just like any other fan, therefore he wants all budding cricketers to use the latest sports analytics to upscale their game!