Cricket: How to Open the Batting

This Cognito Guide is for the young club or school cricketer aspiring to become an opening batsman. It focuses on how to prepare to face the opposition when your team depends on you and all eyes are on you. It discusses strategies for staying in, for getting off the mark and how to progress to build a match-winning innings. Using examples from Test cricket and the author's 30 years experience opening the batting in competitive and "friendly" cricket, this is Cognito Guide helps the aspiring opener to prepare for success when the pressures are greatest.

The author was introduced to cricket by his father, also a passionate club cricketer, and coached by Peter Wight, the West Indian Test batsman. A left-handed batsman, he played cricket for 30 years both in the competitive leagues of London and the Southwest and throughout that time opening the batting. Although enjoying a great deal of success in that role with 50's and a 100 against his name, his lasting regret is running himself out on 91 with ten overs still to go!