India v England | Sanjay Bangar introduces innovative batting drills with coloured balls
In order to prepare Indian batsmen to play the turning ball better, Sanjay Bangar introduced an innovative drill using varied coloured rubber balls. The batting coach wanted the players to use their feet better against the England spinners in the fourth Test starting on Dec 8 in Mumbai.
Red, blue, orange, green and yellow coloured balls were used. Placed at different lengths, each ball had to be played according to what Bangar had specified. This helped the batsmen to not only use their feet, but also get used to the extra bounce generated by the rubber balls.
The red ball was of full length, and the batsmen would have to play it off the front foot. They had to get to the pitch of the ball and keep their hands low to smother the spin and the bounce of the ball.
For the blue ball, batsmen had to come down the wicket and play it to towards mid-off. On-drive the yellow ball. The orange ball was shorter in length, and the batsmen would have to play the sweep shot against it while ensuring that the back knee remained on the ground. The green ball gave the batsman the freedom to get down the pitch and go over the top.