![cricket:image:1431129 [1296x1296]](https://a.espncdn.com/i/cricket/cricinfo/1431129_1296x1296.jpg)
2024 NBA playoffs Ant s leap OKC and Boston dominance among top trends
The first ball of the match swung in against the angle of a left-arm quick. It is one of the more difficult balls to negotiate for right-hand batters. Jake Fraser-McGurk, though, drove it wide of mid-on for four.
Encouraged by the swing, Luke Wood would have fancied himself with the new ball, but Fraser-McGurk kept swinging through the line. When Wood went short of a length, Fraser-McGurk flat-batted him through the covers.
Jasprit Bumrah, the one bowler who has held his own in IPL 2024, began with a slower ball, but Fraser-McGurk lofted him down the ground for a six. This was only the second time Bumrah has been hit for a six first ball in the history of the IPL.
Fraser-McGurk's gameplan was plain. Clear the front leg and swing hard if the ball is in your wheelhouse. Play the horizontal-bat shot if the length allows you to get enough power behind it. If the length is precise, try to chip over the infield because there are only two fielders in the circle. If nothing works, then and only then try to not hit a boundary.
An afterthought for Delhi Capitals (DC), Fraser-McGurk has batted just 104 balls but has attempted boundaries off a staggering 77 of them. That's nearly twice the aggressive shot percentage of 39 this IPL. No other batter has attacked even 60% of the balls he has faced.
Fraser-McGurk is the ideal T20 batter. Bat at the top of the order, have the willingness to capitalise on the field without getting your eye in, and have the necessary skill to adjust to changes in length and pace and score at three runs per ball that he has attacked in his first IPL.
The skill was apparent when Hardik Pandya cramped him with what looked like the perfect ball: short of a length, into the body, taking his arms away from him. And still Fraser-McGurk managed to go inside-out over mid-off from that height and with such little room.
A lot of it is timing, Fraser-McGurk said in the spot interview between the innings, but then there are also the strong core, glutes and upper body that help him when timing can't. That's what you work in the gym for.
Fraser-McGurk has got out five times in those 77 boundary attempts, which might bother conventional wisdom borrowed from longer formats of the game. But this mix of attitude and skill is what coaches would give anything to be able to instil in their more established multi-format batters.
Hardik spoke interestingly of the fearlessness of youth when he praised Fraser-McGurk's innings. Hardik himself was a massive hitter when he burst on to the scene, but now chooses to anchor innings. You see that in some non-Indian players too - such as David Warner, who went from the hitter who came straight from club cricket into internationals to becoming a batter who took upon himself to bat through the innings.
There will come a time not too far in future when Fraser-McGurk will become big too. There will be a big price tag to justify, there will be big expectations. If he can maintain this intent even then, we will have had ourselves another Travis Head, who, by the way, has attacked 54% of the balls he has faced in IPL 2024. The two could be opening together for Australia at the T20 World Cup come June. Be warned.
