Who is the perfect all-rounder?
The perfect all-rounders are players who are as good at batting as they are at bowling. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work to be great at just one aspect of a game, but being the best at both aspects takes much more. Let's take a look at some ways to eventually become an all rounder on the field.
Sharpening your skills
Talent is, no doubt, very important when starting your career. In the long run, however, you will need to constantly practice and hone your skills. To become an all-rounder, you will have to double, and sometimes even triple the effort required.
Fitness
The aspect of being an all-rounder which you cannot ignore is fitness. The amount of time exercising will, and should, take up in your schedule will increase two folds. I recommend intense weight training to build chest and arm muscles, along with leg muscles. Exercises like front and lateral raises, seated military presses, plank shoulder raises when done with dumbbells are key to strengthening your shoulders. Strong shoulders enable you to bowl a wide range of paces as well helps with power hitting while batting.
Analysis of videos
There is always scope of improvement, regardless of how good you think you are. You can always do better. I always record myself when I practice so I can go back, look for mistakes and work on them. We need to remember that everyone makes mistakes, but what will make you different and successful is recognising those mistakes and working on them.
Give equal time to both batting and bowling
You must manage your time in a way that you have adequate and equal time for all departments. It is also imperative to focus only on the task at hand, i.e., when you practice batting, you shouldn’t even be thinking about bowling, and vice versa. Limiting your concentration in this way will help you become an all-rounder really quickly!
Practice, Practice, Practice
This should be your mantra. You need to practice rigorously and with diligence. No matter how talented you are, only dedication will bring you success. Batting and bowling are difficult to perfect by themselves, and becoming an all-rounder is no easy feat.
Keep on practicing, talent alone will not help you, progression and dedication can do magic to your game. Becoming an all-rounder is not an easy task to achieve; lots of sweat and sacrifice have to be done to do that. You must train in a way that helps you bat and bowl for longer hours. More than a cricketer who only bats or bowls.