Do you think bowling or batting is the harder skill to learn?

[mr_mister]

Bowling I think is harder for someone completely new to the sport to reach a level of competency

Batting I think is easier to get the basics of, but perhaps harder to master

 

[Line and Length]

When I took up serious club cricket (having only played backyard games when younger) I was totally untrained in both batting and bowling. In my first year I scored 83 runs @ 5.53 and took 46 wickets @ 9.50 so, from my perspective, bowling came more naturally.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Physically, bowling. Technically, batting. IMO.

Pretty hard question to pin down though given it would be very different for everyone.

 

[NZTailender]

You can probably get exposed quicker as a bowler than a batsman. It's apple and oranges for mine. Some batsmen can make a career with a very limited technique whereas, apart from part timers, bowlers don't necessarily have the same luxury unless their contemporaries have the skills they're lacking. But for someone learning from scratch I think learning the full range of batting strokes, front foot, back foot, head placement etc. would be a more arduous journey. imo.

With bowling I sort of had a 'natural' action that the coach recommended tweaking in a couple of minor ways then it was concentrating on hitting a good line and length and varying the seam position. When it came to learning batting I struggled to master more than one shot.

 

[Daemon]

Bowling is bloody hard to teach people who’ve never watched cricket before. At least with batting you can sort of hang around.

 

[Starfighter]

There's no simple answer to this question. Certainly IMO just swinging a bat is much easier to learn than bowling, which isn't a natural motion as all. But beyond that I don't think it's hard to learn to bowl seam up or basic finger spin, whereas even competent defence requires a bit more application. Hence why the bottom grade teams (like the ones I played in) often seen to have eight okay-ish bowlers and two batsmen. But as you get to higher levels pace bowling in particular becomes much harder. It's as if starting from a level of competence batting 'scales up' faster than bowling.

Part of the issue I think is that the learning process is different, and that becomes more important the higher the level. As far as I can work out even top batsmen are nothing special in terms of physical attributes like reaction times, though obviously some base level of coordination is needed. Batting relies on acquired instinct, where the batsman has learned to subconsciously judge where the ball is going early and move accordingly. Why some can do it and not others, I can't say.

Pace bowling, on the other hand, absolutely requires certain genetic traits imbuing coordination and fast twitch muscles, hence some bowlers even with loads of practice and perfect technique will never be as fast as others. On the other hand it, IMO, seems to involve less learning - those who can bowl quickly and rhythmically seem to be able to put it all together very quickly (obviously some improvements are possible after that).

I would say spin bowling, or at least finger spin, is the most learnable. You don't need the physical traits for pace bowling and the time and repetition to develop the instincts for batting. But even then there is variation - it never ceases to stagger me how much faster professional spin bowlers bowl than amateur, and doing that takes effort.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Tricky one.

Spin bowling is the toughest IMO, coz you have to learn a hundred different things. Giving it a proper rip, making sure that the ball rises above the batsman's eye line, adjusting lengths as per the batsman's footwork, etc. Takes a lot of exposure and practice to learn proper spin bowling.

Pace bowling on the other hand is straight forward if you are not injury prone. A quality outswinger works against some random freak as well as an accomplished batter. Simply nailing your fundamentals + some pace takes you a long way. You can master the more finer skills at a later stage.

Batting is all about quality of training and muscle memory. If you have a good coach + good variety of bowlers in the nets, just practice and work on whatever isn't looking good. Whatever shots you've developed in the nets will come intuitively in a match situation if you just stay still and react to the bowling.

Again, I am talking about my experience with club level cricket. I am not sure how things are if you play state level cricket.

 

[Red]

For roughly 3 decades I’ve been trying my hand at both disciplines. I’ll let you know if I become competent at one anytime soon.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

For roughly 3 decades I’ve been trying my hand at both disciplines. I’ll let you know if I become competent at one anytime soon.

I think you should take up keeping. You'll at least feel great about being better than one keeper who played decent amount of cricket at the highest level .

 

[Starfighter]

Not that I've done it, but taking up keeping is by far the best way to ensure selection at the lower grades (unless you're completely incompetent). Been in plenty of teams without a specialist keeper, and boy does it suck.

 

[honestbharani]

I was always the wicket keeper right from the time I started playing for fun with the neighbor kids. So never tried bowling. So batting by default, I guess, personally.

 

[cnerd123]

I think learning to 'stick around' as a batter is easier than learning how to bowl 6 legal balls. However it is much easier to take wickets than to score runs at low levels of cricket. As long as you can get the ball down the other end, you're in with a chance, but scoring runs requires a bit more skill and nous. So once a player has got the basics down, teaching batting actually becomes a lot harder. Have to teach them a lot of shots and technique, and work done in training/nets doesn't translate to matches as well as it does for bowlers. Even getting in-game experience for a player is harder - at least a bowler will get to finish their over, but they might get a 1st ball duck with the bat!

Wicketkeeping is actually really easy to teach/pick up, but you need someone who is fit and energetic enough and also not scared of the ball.

 

[karan_fromthestands]

I think learning to 'stick around' as a batter is easier than learning how to bowl 6 legal balls. However it is much easier to take wickets than to score runs at low levels of cricket. As long as you can get the ball down the other end, you're in with a chance, but scoring runs requires a bit more skill and nous. So once a player has got the basics down, teaching batting actually becomes a lot harder. Have to teach them a lot of shots and technique, and work done in training/nets doesn't translate to matches as well as it does for bowlers. Even getting in-game experience for a player is harder - at least a bowler will get to finish their over, but they might get a 1st ball duck with the bat!

Wicketkeeping is actually really easy to teach/pick up, but you need someone who is fit and energetic enough and also not scared of the ball.

 

[Daemon]

Yeah depends on the level I guess

Literally never picked up a bat/ball before - Batting feels more natural

Noob cricket - Finger spin hands down. Don’t even need to turn it.

Anything beyond - Finger spin gives you the best chance of not looking useless but if someone takes a liking to you then you’re ****ed.

Elite - Nothing’s easy obviously but there’s a reason most part timers bowl finger spin

 

[ataraxia]

Yeah depends on the level I guess

Literally never picked up a bat/ball before - Batting feels more natural

Noob cricket - Finger spin hands down. Don’t even need to turn it.

Anything beyond - Finger spin gives you the best chance of not looking useless but if someone takes a liking to you then you’re ****ed.

Elite - Nothing’s easy obviously but there’s a reason most part timers bowl finger spin

wrong account Burgey

 

[cnerd123]

wonder if I can dig up the poem i wrote about fingerspin on here

 

[karan_fromthestands]

Yeah depends on the level I guess

Literally never picked up a bat/ball before - Batting feels more natural

Noob cricket - Finger spin hands down. Don’t even need to turn it.

Anything beyond - Finger spin gives you the best chance of not looking useless but if someone takes a liking to you then you’re ****ed.

Elite - Nothing’s easy obviously but there’s a reason most part timers bowl finger spin

If you want to bowl absolute darts/medium pace-like finger spin just to contain the batsmen, sure.

But if you want to pick wickets in 40/50 over games or 2/3/4 day games, you'll need to work really hard on your flight, variations and pace mix-up.

Also, most part timers bowl medium pace and finger spin. Simple seam up deliveries and flat finger spin are same in terms of difficulty.

Don't defame finger spin. Defame those guys who dance like maniacs and hog all the cheap attention at parties, dancing is the most useless skill a guy can have .

 

[TheJediBrah]

For someone who already can play cricket at the barest minimum of levels, the easiest skill by far to become proficient at at a decent level (like basic club 1st grade) is finger spin. Shockingly easy thing to take up and have relative success at compared to other specialisms.

Wicketkeeping is actually really easy to teach/pick up

uh

Yeah depends on the level I guess

yes

 

[karan_fromthestands]

For someone who already can play cricket at the barest minimum of levels, the easiest skill by far to become proficient at at a decent level (like basic club 1st grade) is finger spin. Shockingly easy thing to take up and have relative success at compared to other specialisms.

I think this is a myth. Bowling tidy seam-ups in the middle overs is even easier. But part-timers generally don't want to spend a lot of physical energy on their bowling, so they try bowling dirty darts instead.

 

[TheJediBrah]

I think this is a myth. Bowling tidy seam-ups in the middle overs is even easier. But part-timers generally don't want to spend a lot of physical energy on their bowling, so they try bowling dirty darts instead.

Not at a semi-decent level of cricket. Maybe in very low grades playing on synthetic wickets