Top 5 batters with the weirdest batting stances

The game of cricket was once known to be a sport based on protocols and conventional methods, however, ever since the inception of new formats like T20 cricket and the introduction of new rules and regulations, a vastly different mentality has replaced all these textbooks techniques. The game has now witnessed multiple experiments, with the batsman adopting new ways of scoring runs.

One of the main reasons behind the high popularity of the batting greats like Sir Don Bradman, Sir Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli is the fact that all of them are quite elegant and value ethics and traditions.

However, at the same time, there have been players who have adopted unconventional modi operandi of batting. Some have had strange ways of holding the bat, while others used very bizarre stances. The stance is the base of batting as it helps the batsman to face a delivery. Nevertheless, there have been instances when the batters have tried to experiment with it and have even proved out to be successful.

Here, we'll have a look at such batsmen, who have had very unusual batting deportments.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

Shivnarine Chanderpaul's comportment while batting was way different from the ordinary course of nature. The lad had a very unorthodox technique and an awkward-looking stance. It was a front-on stance, with his body standing at the 90-degree-angle of the conventional batting position. His bat generally rested right in between his legs, his shoulder was stood right in front of the square-leg umpire & his chest faced the bowler.

Nonetheless, this unusual technique never affected the West Indian cricketer's mindset. Despite having a very unorthodox batting style, the Southpaw always focused on the bowler, which helped him a lot. The 44-year old has scored 11,867 runs in test cricket and almost 9k runs in ODIs. He is one of the best and most underrated players West Indies has ever produced. Although his stance was widely termed as being "crab-like", he never let it affect his performance.

He even said that his technique surprisingly helps him to do better. About his stance, the veteran once said, "I just had to be a little open and get the bat up in front of my face every minute. It was just to protect myself,"

George Bailey

The former Australian skipper often took a stance in which, his back faces the bowler and his bat stands right in front of the fielder at point. He keeps his back foot very side-on. This lists him among the batsmen with a funny batting stance.

Bailey once said after the game that my tendency when the ball is swinging is to turn my hip to face the bowler, which then makes my hands lead out and it would get me into a lot of trouble. So it's just something I've been tinkering with to try and make sure my back foot stays as side-on as possible.

Fawad Alam

Fawad Alam recently became the fastest Pakistani batter to score five Test tons. The middle-order batsman created history during the ongoing second Test match between Pakistan and West Indies at Sabina Park, Jamaica.

Fawad also has a Chanderpaul-like stance. The only difference being the gap between the legs, which is more in Fawad's case. His ugly-looking stance allows him to play more freely and get a better view of the ball while it gets delivered from the bowlers' hands. Unfortunately, he has never got a deserved longer run in the Pakistani side.

Steve Smith

Steve Smith too, has a bizarre stance. He stands with a considerable gap separating his feet and keeps swerving his bat. Thanks to his high back-lift, he shuffles and walks across the line before playing a shot and gets them executed.

At times, Smith ends up irritating the bowlers and even viewers with too much shuffling across. But this batting style has made him the top batsman in the world across formats.

Kevin Pietersen

Kevin Pietersen had an unusual batting stance and technique. Whenever he came out to bat, Pietersen would stand at the crease with his feet wide apart from each other and played with a high backlit. The distance between his legs would be so much that a small-sized vehicle may easily pass through the gap.

Further, he would keep shuffling and walking across the pitch, making it more difficult for the bowlers to bowl. However, this never proved out to be costly for the English cricketer as he always remained very concentrated while batting on the crease. KP went on to score a total of 8,181 runs in his 104-match test career.