Dictionary Definition
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Synonyms
Noun
- Applied to both male and female cricketers:
- A player of the batting side now on the field
- The player now
receiving strike; the striker
- 2001: The batsman, Kathryn Leng, (who has played for quite a few years for England) asked the umpire dumbfounded if Charlie was going to bowl with a helmet on. — Julia Price (Australian cricketer), her women's Ashes diary entry for 19 June 2001 http://www.southernstars.org.au/ukdiary2001.htm
- Any player selected for his or her team principally to bat
Related terms
Extensive Definition
A batsman in the sport of cricket is, depending on
context:
- Any player in the act of batting.
- A player whose speciality in the game is batting.
The batting role
During the play of a cricket match, two members of the batting team are on the field, while their team-mates wait off the field. Those two players are the current batsmen. Each batsman stands near one of the two wickets at either end of the cricket pitch near the centre of the ground.The two batsmen have different roles:
While defending his wicket, the striker may also
hit the ball into the field and attempt to run to the opposite
wicket, exchanging places with the non-striker. This scores a
run. The
two batsmen may continue to exchange places, scoring additional
runs, until members of the fielding team collect and return the
ball to either wicket. See run
(cricket) for further details.
While the striker's position is dictated by the
necessity to defend the bowled ball from hitting his wicket, the
non-striker typically takes a few steps away from his wicket as the
bowler delivers the ball, in preparation to run.
Batting skills
The skills required to be a good batsman vary with the type of cricket game being played and the situation of the game. Generally a batsman is required to score runs as quickly as possible without taking unnecessary risks and losing his wicket. At other times a batsman may be required to simply occupy the crease (stay in) as long as possible so as to prevent the bowling team from winning the game before time runs out. Batting average and strike rate are standard statistical measures of a batsman's ability, although their objective values are a favoured subject of debate amongst fans.Batsmen also have specialties within the skill.
Some are opening batsmen (openers), meaning that they are the first
players to bat in an innings. This specialty requires
patience and fortitude to face the best opposition bowlers who are
normally used first; typically these bowlers are fast bowlers, so
an ability against fast pitched bowling is useful. In addition, a
new cricket ball will keep its speed better when it bounces, which
gives opening batsmen less time to play their shots. A new cricket
ball will also have a tendency to move laterally when pitched as
the seam is still prominent. However, an older ball may swing more
or even
reverse swing.
Following the opening batsmen are the
middle-order batsmen (sometimes #3 is not considered middle-order).
They are generally more free-scoring than the openers, partly
because of their style and partly because the openers will have
hopefully tired the bowlers and taken the shine and bounce from the
new ball, so it should be easier to score runs.
After the recognised batsmen, the batting team's
bowlers bat. Bowlers generally spend more time practising bowling,
and so their batting is usually not as accomplished as the
recognised batsmen. Particularly bad batsmen are known as rabbits.
On occasion some truly woeful batsmen have been referred to as
ferrets as 'they go in after the rabbits.'
Australian cricketer Sir Donald
Bradman, "The Don", is universally accepted as the greatest
exponent of the art of batting that the game has ever seen. His
record is without peer.
Some players, known as all-rounders,
are reasonably good at batting and bowling and may occupy any
position in the batting lineup but few are opening batsmen and
obviously none is a rabbit (or they wouldn't be
all-rounders!).
The wicket-keeper
also bats and is expected to be at least an adequate batsman: the
choice of wicket-keepers for international teams is often
influenced by their batting ability.
All of the above are generalisations and many
exceptions can be found in the history
of cricket.
Womens' Cricket
The term batsman is used in both Mens' and Womens' Cricket, whether the cricketer is male or female.Some noted batsmen by country
Bold used to indicate a current playercr AUS
cr ENG
cr IND
cr PAK
cr RSA
cr WIN
cr ZIM
Cricket Bat Brands
batsman in German: Batsman
batsman in French: Batteur (cricket)
batsman in Polish: Batsman
batsman in Tamil: மட்டையாளர்