Economy of movement and balance – The secret behind Babar Azam’s success

WAQAS ZAFAR: The Pakistan batsman has reinvented his approach at the crease, limiting his foot movement and the work is paying dividends

• England v Pakistan: Day one talking points
• England v Pakistan: Combined XI

The more movements you make as a batsman, the greater the chance of you making an error. These are the words of former England and India coach Duncan Fletcher, who was renowned for forensically studying batting techniques.

Babar Azam’s batting seems to be working around Fletcher’s principles – the fewer movements the less chance of committing an error. While former Pakistan head coach Mickey Arthur deserves plenty of credit for sticking with Babar in the red-ball format, certain things have changed in his game which gives him balance right throughout his movements. That in turn, alongside other things, have started holding him in good stead in Test cricket.

In a session arranged by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, former Pakistan batting great Mohammad Yousuf was invited over to speak with all Pakistan batsmen currently involved in the setup. One of the main things highlighted by Yousuf in that session was Babar’s ‘balance at the crease’ which, according to him, made the young batsman stand out from the rest of the lot.

“His initial movements are very little, which allow him to stay still at the crease (and not commit early),” said Yousuf in a video conference during the lockdown period. “He can play the cut, pull, and drives which means he is shifting his weight on time rather than going early and playing across his pads.”

That being said, what exactly has Babar started doing well which makes his balance look so good? To start with his head now seems to be more in line with his back foot at the point of release, which means he can come back into the shot with a lot more ease rather than starting at a slightly unbalanced position and falling across just as the ball started to come out of the bowler’s hand.

His positions at point of release have changed over the course of years which highlights certain little technical things batsmen keep on working to get better and evolve. 

If we roll back to 2016-17 when Pakistan toured Australia, Josh Hazlewood had the wood on him, and he was either nicking off or getting hit on the pads. Now, watching the set of dismissals highlight a very frequent trait with his head going away from his center of mass, which in turn leads to issues in balance. Keep an eye on his head going slightly outside the line of his back foot.

^{Babar Azam batting against Australia on the 2016-17 tour}

Fast forward that to the series against Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates in 2017 his posture changed into a more upright one but that little dip to the off-side just around that point of release stayed.

Babar, in a masterclass with former Pakistan skipper Ramiz Raja, had admitted about the issue of planting across his stumps. Though he didn’t speak much about the changes required to improve his balance, he did highlight the effort to keep his head straight rather than going across the ball.

In 2018, there was a slight tweak to his set-up but his balance had improved at ball release and after that. See at the ball release below how his head is directly in line with his back foot, rather than going outside of it.

^{Babar Azam against Sri Lanka in 2017}

The other thing Babar seems to be doing so well is that he waits for the ball for a split second longer. Even after the ball is released, his head does move (not across the stumps) but in a very controlled and precise manner. Before that, he used to search for the ball and that meant his balance was a little out of place. That, in turn, caused problems when the ball started to nip around.

The other fascinating bit from the masterclass from Yousuf was when he described his struggles to fall across the stumps early on in his career. He described the influence of late Bob Woolmer at that point in time, as Woolmer would bring in a bag of balls with different colors and feed them to Yousuf. The task for Yousuf was to call out the color of the ball before playing a shot, which, in turn, forced him to wait for the ball to come to him and then react accordingly.

^{Babar Azam against New Zealand in 2018}

This seems to be exactly the case with Babar, who is now waiting for the ball for that extra split second and then making smaller movements to score runs all over the ground. 

If you watch him during the ongoing Test between England and Pakistan, his defence looked rock solid despite a few play and misses at the start of his innings. While the likes of Abid Ali and Azhar Ali committed themselves early on the first line and got beaten by lateral movement, Babar’s alignment looked spot-on as he didn’t commit early due to the changes highlighted above in his set-up. Instead, he defended the ball right under his nose.

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