Our batting collapses are mental, says Graeme Hick
BCCI
Australia batting coach Graeme Hick feels that the side’s repetitive batting collapse has more to do with the players’ mindset than technical issues as the team contains a plethora of potential. The former England batsman has asked his players to rectify it fast, with the Ashes coming up next month.
Graeme Hick believes that the Australian side has identified the problem with their batting collapse and thinks the problem is more mental over the technical flaws. Highlighting Australia’s recent tendency to give away games from a position of relative strength, Hick said that the players on the side have the ability to perform but it is their state of mind that is playing a problem.
He stated, “Our batting collapses are mental. The players are all there, their techniques are set and they’re all very different and all very individual. Every side collapses at times, but at the moment we seem to be doing it quite a bit in both forms of the game. So, I think it is a bit of a mental thing.”
“At times when it happens, especially after a long partnership, people sometimes get a little bit relaxed thinking everything is OK and you’re maybe not preparing mentally for that. And the next thing you know you’re strapping your pads on, two or three wickets are down, and you’re out there. Maybe there’s a little bit of that. It happens in all cricket but it’s certainly something we’ve identified."
Recent history is replete with such occasions when the Australian side went on to be beaten from a dominating match-winning position. It happened in Colombo last year, in Perth next, in Dharamshala Test against India during the four-match Test series, and most recently, in Dhaka as they lost the opening Test to Bangladesh.
Australia
Hick is not the first person to admit the problem as coach David Saker also stressed on the side’s ongoing loss of confidence that has stemmed from the series of losses away from home. Despite Ben Stokes’ likely absence from the Ashes series next month, England
And Hick has asked his players to rectify their problems before they welcome England next month. “There’s no hiding from it and we’re certainly going to try and start making amends. Especially with the Ashes coming up, we certainly don’t want to be losing wickets in clumps,” he said.
