Why Are All Opening Batsmen Left Handed

[usy]

Apparently left-handed people have quicker reactions too. There make up a disproportionate percentage of professional cricketers.

how do you know?

 

[angryangy]

To get one enigma out of the way, you don't actually have to be the slightest bit left handed to bat LHB. If you do a little research you soon notice that the vast majority of LHB batsmen are in fact right handed people. Actually, handedness is a bit more grey than left or right (take the Edinburgh Inventory to see where you are on the scale), for example, Sachin Tendulkar is known to write left handed, meaning he is probably highly ambidextrous (it is likely that the reason we see fewer left handed Indians is because it was discouraged by their teachers and coaches, a practice that was once commonplace all over the world well into the last century), but generally the numbers work out that for batsmen there is usually an overall natural proportion of right handedness to left handedness.

Suppose a third of all right hand dominant people bat LHB and the same proportion of left hand dominant people bat RHB. Being that about 90% of the population are right handed, there would be about 37% of the population batting LHB.

It is really not difficult to swap stances. Typically it is not something a batsman considers much, but players such as Mike Hussey have admitted that they changed to emulate a particular player.

Like I said in a similar thread, I question the logic of coaching batsmen to be 'top-handed' while we consider putting our dominant hand at the bottom to be the norm. It only stands to reason that the most technically proficient batsmen have a relatively strong top hand and the hand you use the most often is always going to have the benefit of that additional motor skill training.

 

[vaibhav mehta]

I say stance factor make them different and difficult to BOWL.I mean if you follow then most of the RHB have same stance(same doesn't mean perfectly same but bowler know where the slog area for RHB and how to bowl yorker)on other hane Allmost all LHB have completely different stance.(Ganguly,Chandrapaul,Hayden,Gilly)
and other factor might be Tactical advantages...

 

[Gilly Fan]

If I could change the way I bat, I'd be a left hand batter.

 

[sd92]

The simple answer is; because we are all amazing. Just look at me

 

[iloveireland]

The simple answer is; because we are all amazing. Just look at me

Seriously though, they are hard to bowl the new ball too.

 

[Sureshot]

Unless you're Matthew Hoggard or Glenn McGrath.

 

[sohum]

Left handed batsmen look better driving.

 

[Animator!]

If they do it right. Only Michael Hussey really drives technically perfectly out of the leftie's but it's because of the angles and everything.

 

[sohum]

If they do it right. Only Michael Hussey really drives technically perfectly out of the leftie's but it's because of the angles and everything.

Most left handed batsmen look absolutely beautiful when driving through the offside. Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly, for example.

 

[Ollie_H]

If I could change the way I bat, I'd be a left hand batter.

I agree. They look so good when they bat. Its stunning. Although you get right handed batsmen that look stunning. Belly's drives, Vaughan's drive

 

[King Pietersen]

There aren't many classically stylish left-handed batsmen in world cricket atm, other than maybe Michael Hussey. The large majority of lefties are pinch hitters, Jayasuriya, Smith, Hayden, Gilchrist, Yuvraj, Ganguly etc. The most stylish batsmen in the world; Michael Clarke, Ian Bell, Michael Vaughan, Sachin Tendulkar, etc are all righties. Could just be coincidence, but i'm not sure.

 

[Will_NA]

I do agree that most left-handers are left stylish in their play than right handers. They seem to stand square-on and hit square too. I do prefer watching righ handers just because they look more fluemt at the crease. This isn't to say they're less talented but definitely less stylish.

 

[sohum]

There aren't many classically stylish left-handed batsmen in world cricket atm, other than maybe Michael Hussey. The large majority of lefties are pinch hitters, Jayasuriya, Smith, Hayden, Gilchrist, Yuvraj, Ganguly etc. The most stylish batsmen in the world; Michael Clarke, Ian Bell, Michael Vaughan, Sachin Tendulkar, etc are all righties. Could just be coincidence, but i'm not sure.

Yuvraj is not a pinch hitter. How you can call him a pinch hitter when he is clearly one of the most flamboyant batsmen in world cricket is beyond me. In fact, he rarely hits in the air unless he's sweeping a spinner over the mid-wicket boundary. Otherwise, whenever he goes over the top, it's with a drive, not a slog.

 

[Sureshot]

Most left handed batsmen look absolutely beautiful when driving through the offside. Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly, for example.

Nice, clean and unbiased posting there, Sohum

I always thought that Tres looked good driving. Lara was jaw dropping.