World T20 Cup:

In this Asian Cup week, the Pakistan Cricket Board’s Twitter handle posted a short video featuring their designated six hitter, Asif Ali. In the clip about his training method, Asif gave a rare peek into the mind of T20’s most influential players—the archetype of mercurial lower-order batters with the power to deliver decisive blows that probably decide nine out of 10 games in this format of fine margins.

Unwittingly, the young man, by sharing his uncomplicated batting process, gave clues about the changing perception of players about the limited-overs game and the possible course the sport would take in the future.

The 30-year-old, a high-value power-hitter on the tape-ball circuit till he was in his 20s, revealed that his T20 batting was about clinically breaking down his innings by treating each ball as a virtual set-piece contest between bat and ball. Others reputed T20 finishers, the poster boys of franchise cricket around the world like Pandya and Keiron Pollard, have also followed the same game plan.

The good old elaborate plot of setting up batsmen over six balls has now been put on the back burner. It’s not that ‘three away balls, followed by the surprise sucker punch of the in-cutter’ has become obsolete, but T20 is increasingly about treating each ball as a standalone event that has no real correlation to the previous or subsequent deliveries.

T20 cricket, especially for its MVPs who take the stage when the game is on the boil, is no longer seen as a 20-over game in the true sense. It’s now a contest of 120 balls.

Nostalgia in ageing Sharjah, coldness in forward-thinking Dubai:

Asif starts by explaining his net session routine in the lead-up to T20 games, like the Asia Cup, where Pakistan play India on Sunday.

I try to hit about 100 to 150 sixes in training so that I can hit those 3-4-5 sixes in a game. At the position I bat, invariably the team needs to score about 10 or 11, or at times even at 14 runs per over. So, there is a lot of pressure on me, plus there is, of course, the pressure of playing international cricket. So, in the practise sessions and matches, we keep in mind the same condition and pressure, "he says.

I try to hit about 100 to 150 sixes in training so that I can hit those 3-4-5 sixes in a game. At the position I bat, invariably the team needs to score about 10 or 11, or at times even at 14 runs per over. So, there is a lot of pressure on me, plus there is of course the pressure of playing international cricket. So, in the practise sessions and matches, we keep in mind the same condition and pressure, "he says.

While the "150 sixes" part of his statement made it to the headlines, the thought behind this repetition didn’t get the attention it deserved. The early part of the video has Asif facing a many of balls of varying line and length. With the ‘150’ target in his mind, he would deal with them with the intention of despatching them over the boundary line. His feet, head and general shape would remain still. Asif’s sixes are about his keen eye, anticipation and the measured movements of his arms.

An ever-evolving game:

Until very recently, batters tasked with stepping up the run rate would use phrases like "preferred scoring areas" and would hope to get "the ball in their arc". It conveyed the boundaries they would target and the kind of deliveries they would want the bowlers to bowl to them.

Franchise T20 leagues

In the highly-competitive T20 franchise leagues, teams are armed to the teeth with data and other analytical tools to dissect the strengths and weaknesses of players. This is not the age of single-weapon cricketers. To succeed in death overs these days, players need much more than just a slog to the cow corner at the base of the stumps.

That’s the reason batters like Asif are prepared for every eventuality."I believe that wherever the ball is pitched, I will hit; I believe that whatever the delivery is - pitching outside off, length ball, yorker, or anything - I will hit the shot," he says..

In years to come, teams will want to own the match situations when batters are looking for sixes with bowlers doing their best to stop them. Like in football, they would invest heavily in research and master these set-pieces. This might see them borrowing new ideas from other fields and adopting them. just like Tottenham Hotspur.

The big story of this season :

The big story of this season’s English Premier League is Tottenham’s ability to score from corners. What was otherwise a blind spot for them is proving to be a strength. The recent addition to their support staff – a 69-year-old one-time banker and now set-piece coach – Gianni, is said to have made a difference. After their game against Wolverhampton Wanderers, in which they scored their third goal from a dead-ball situation, players said that deserves to get a pay hike.

T20 is a game of 120 set-pieces:

The number-cruncher with the knack for working on angles and looking forspace, whoe had earlier worked with the Italian team during the European Championship is said to have conjured 4,000 different routines by keeping in mind the strength of his players and the opponents’weaknessess.

While set-pieces in football are few and far between, T20 is a game of 120 set-pieces. No wonder, the newer formats like The Hundred and even the promoted Caribbean enterprise 6ixty, in a subtle hint, undermined the long-celebrated ‘overs’ and underlined the importance of ‘balls’. The signs were there, but the world seemed to have missed cricket’s sliced-bread moment.

When the T20 big-hitters like Asif Ali and Hardik Pandya each ball is a virtual set-piece, a standalone event.