non striker backing up
HiI want some drills to get new cricketers understanding about backing up as Non Striker and not standing watching.
Hi Chris,
A good drill to encourage this would be to set-up as you would do for a normal game with a bowler, 2 batsmen and fielders spread out. As the coach, you can stand in the on strike batsmans position. The bowler can then run into bowl (with a tennis ball/incrediball) and the non-striker should be backing-up with the bowler. The bowler balls the ball, the coach catches the ball at the strikers end and throws the ball out (as if playing a shot) to a fielder or into a gap. The batsmen then have to decide whether to run or not. If it has gone behind square, it`s the non strikers job to call for the run or not. If it is in front of square, it`s the on strike batsmans job to call for the run.
Setting up the drill with the batsmen only focused on running will encourage the non-striking batsmen to back-up with the bowler. You can focus on throwing the ball behind square to put extra emphasise on the non-striker dictating whether they run. I hope this was helpful!
Matt
