Learning from the master

Early in my career I fielded at short-leg to Rahul Dravid and got a good close-up look at him. The thing that astonished me was the size of his movements forward and back – it was incredible. As soon as the spinner missed their length, and they didn’t have to miss it by a lot, he would punish them.

Halving the bat to up the difficulty

I religiously use a half bat in the nets. It’s the same weight as my normal-size bat but half the width. You should always be trying to find ways to make training harder than what you’ll face in a game, and if you can play the spinners with a half-size bat then you’ll find doing it with a full- size bat a hell of a lot easier.

The best players I’ve played with put themselves under pressure in practice so that when it comes to a match they’re not trying to go up a gear. If anything, it’s slightly easier.