Team India, T20 World Cup and The Psychology of Cricket!

With the Cricket T20 World Cup fast approaching and after Team India's departure to Australia, in hopes of bringing the #T20worldcup2022 home, it is an excellent time to write on the psychology of cricket and the importance of mental toughness in the game.

The sport of cricket is demanding from a psychological point of view. So, it's reasonable to say that there is no sport quite like cricket. Cricket is a game that requires an entire array of mental techniques to battle the mental pressure to win the physical event. Of course, all sports are mentally challenging. Many require only certain kinds of cognitive skills for performance consistency.

According to former Australian cricketer, Glenn McGrath, physical ability is a 10 to 20 per cent requirement in the game of cricket, while a player needs 80 to 90 per cent mental strength. 

Let's break down the psychology of cricket a little. 

Cricket varies in forms, ranging from the limited-over T20 matches to ODI's and test matches that last five days. The game's intensity varies and requires mental toughness to "willingly enter into the high-intensity confrontation between batter and bowler, and revel in the situation.

It is a game covered with the messed up dreams of the individuals who faltered when they generally should have been in charge of themselves and be centered around the job needing to be done. 

Cricket is an emotional experience; players will experience both positive and negative emotions. Positive emotions (e.g., happiness) can bring about helpful performance gains, while negative emotions (e.g., anger) have a debilitating effect.

A cricketer's mental strength is what separates the best players from the pack. The best players and teams are always motivated, confident, and focused, cope with pressure effortlessly, and keep control of their emotions.

Technical, tactical, and physical preparation is crucial for a match-winning performance. Still, the player's psychology more often dominates their on-field performance, which is the difference between success and failure. 

Team India's current mental conditioning coach, Paddy Upton , believes that cricket's biggest mental obstacle is fear of failure and pressure.

Cricket is both an individual sport and a team game, and mental toughness is a crucial aspect of the sport. So, the cricketers need mental coaching to work on their psychological skills that apply to the team and individual players.

What Studies Say About Cricket Psychology?

According to studies by Dr. Rob Duffield and Dr. Marc Portus, the Sports Science Manager of Cricket Australia, players do not need to be as physically fit to play cricket as other sports such as football. However, they need to be psychologically strong and have high endurance levels and recovery.

"Physical conditioning and muscle training are not going to improve your performance in cricket necessarily," Dr. Duffield said. "Having a high oxygen consumption or a faster twenty-meter sprint time doesn't mean you are going to be able to bowl better, get more wickets, or score a century. The key to being a good cricketer is tackling the game's psychological aspects through mental conditioning."

Independent studies by Alistair McRobert from Liverpool University and Dr. Sean Müller from RMIT University concluded that the best batsmen could predict the ball they would receive before it left the bowler's hand. While another batter will only decide where the ball will land once it is in flight or may make an early faulty call, an experienced player can start this decision-making process earlier, giving him more time for shot selection.

Jeremy Snape, Master in Sports Psychology, says, "Cricketers have no idea of how to shut out the mental pressure or thoughts as they go out to bat or bowl. A batsman may be in the field batting for over 3 hours and scoring a century, but the player is only batting for 8-10 seconds per delivery. The way we analyze and how well we do is what determines the success of players and the team as a whole. 

The 4C’s

When an individual player has a great purpose and responsibility, like winning the T20 world cup, there is great stress. The length and complexity of a cricket game always test a player’s mind, and the players must be mentally conditioned to deal with this.

Mental coaches today are increasingly using psychological techniques to help players maintain emotional control, cope with anxiety, boost confidence and optimize their performance in a competitive situation, allowing them to relax and focus on the task positively.

The 4C’s are considered as the mental qualities important for successful implementation:

Confidence

When you have it (confidence), you feel like you’re never going to lose it; when you haven’t got it, you feel like you’re never going to get it. 

Confidence describes an individual's self-belief in their abilities and the interpersonal trust they possess to influence others and deal with conflict and challenge.

Due to the many uncontrollable factors in cricket (e.g., playing conditions, umpiring decisions) and the fact that, statistically, cricketers fail more times than they succeed, the ability of cricketers to regulate and maintain self-efficacy or confidence is crucial for success. 

Confidence results from the player's comparison between the goal and their ability. The player will have self-confidence if they can achieve their goal. When players have self-confidence, they tend to be positive in their approach and take their share of the responsibility for the team's success.

Players must be aware of how self-efficacy is influenced and their most important sources of self-efficacy information. They must develop strategies to regulate self-efficacy throughout a game, test series, and season.

Concentration

Cricketing mental toughness requires extraordinary abilities to concentrate on the goal set in mind. Concentration is the ability to focus on what is essential at that moment. For batters in any form of the game, it takes one mental slip or the tiniest lack of concentration for their day to be over. These acceptable margins make mental toughness crucial for any batsman, from elite to grassroots.

If the player’s concentration is more than their playing abilities will be effectively or efficiently applied to the task. Players need to learn how to use their minds, control their thinking and focus, and understand how to lessen their mental stress. All these skills are important to game and life.

Control

Control means having a sense of self-worth and describes how a person feels in control of their life and circumstances. Also, importantly it illustrates the extent to which they can control the display of their emotions.

It’s a mix of high skill levels and being clear mentally and strong-minded. With the noise and pressure, it’s about how you control your emotions. 

In cricket, players and coaches sign up to experience a vast spectrum of feelings, from the abundance of joy and happiness gleaned from a vital match victory through the terrorizing anxiety when preparing for a cup final to disappointment and dejection following a defeat. To optimize performance, players must make the most effective use of their emotions.

Commitment

Sports performance depends on the player’s unflinching commitment to excellence along with numerous goals associated with the game. Commitment is about goal orientation and describes the extent to which someone is prepared to set goals and make measurable promises that, once completed, they will work hard to deliver on.

A mentally tough person with high commitment can usually be relied upon to set goals and targets and do what they need to achieve them.

Control and commitment taken together are what most people mean when they think of resilience, which is a solid response to adversity. But resilience is primarily a passive quality and is only one part of mental toughness.

Setting SMART goals with the players will raise their feelings of value, give them joint ownership of the goals, and therefore become more committed to achieving them.

Whilst research shows that the 4 C’s are independent, they are all linked by the concept of Mental Toughness in Cricket Psychology.

Bonus - Visualization and Self-Talk in Cricket

Visualization or guided imagery is a very powerful technique that helps players to increase both efficiency and effectiveness in achieving their cricket goals, whether it would be scoring one hundred runs, playing a perfect cover drive, or taking that vital wicket or catch.

Former Indian Skipper Virat Kohli visualizes difficult situations and formulates strategies. According to him, visualization helped him succeed against Australia in 2014-15. 

He did not have a good test tour in England, and the next time was against Australia in Australia, where the hosts were even more tormenting and hostile. Before that tour, he had just 1855 runs to his name across 29 test matches in 3 and a half years with an average of less than 40. 

Three months before going to Australia, he started visualizing how he would be taking on those bowlers and how he would be dominating the hosts in those grueling conditions. And then the extensive tour started. He scored four centuries in four Tests and made more runs in a series (692) against Australia than any Indian had ever made. This clinical performance turned Virat Kohli from being 'just good' to 'one of the best batsmen in Test cricket.

Visualization is the process where players practice the mental rehearsal of their long-term and short-term goals clearly and precisely every day till D-day arrives.

Promoting the visualization of positive scenes, such as run-scoring or wicket-taking moments, has become part of the coaching manual of many cricket teams, thanks to psychological research.

Listed below are six steps of visualization.

Step 1) Be prepared and ready to visualize :

It is essential to be in a relaxed and positive frame with a clear goal.

Step 2) Enter a meditative state :

Studies show that visualization is much more effective and meaningful when we focus on breathing for a few minutes.

Step 3) Visualize your goal achievement :

Try to be as accurate and realistic as possible. Focus not only on the visual images but also the cheering, melodic sounds, redolent scents, and blissful sensations of achieving your desired goal.

Step 4) Hold onto the feelings associated with your visualization :

Holding onto those feelings of pride, happiness, confidence, and belief is essential to attract your desired things.

Step 5) Ensure it is a systematic process :

You must dedicate a part of your day to visualization so that the mind is more convinced and responds even better in the actual scenario.

Step 6) Work hard to achieve your goal :

Remember that there is no shortcut to success. Don't limit your challenges; instead, challenge your limits. Never settle for less than you deserve or desire. 

In addition to visualization, the Indian team may work on their self-belief and self-talk. Because what players say to themselves before any action on the field can profoundly influence their performance.

Self-Talk

Research has shown that how someone talks to themselves significantly impacts how they think, feel, and behave – it is even linked to their mindset and confidence. In the context of one of the most critical cricket competitions in the world, we can see how these parameters would impact a cricketer’s performance.

A study that considered using self-talk in elite cricketers found that it helps increase focus and self-belief and reduces anxiety during the performance. It was beneficial when the batter walked to the crease for their first ball and when facing a new bowler.

One participant used the phrase “ball” as a reminder to focus on the upcoming delivery and to help block out potential distractions. This suggests that something as simple as a one-word statement may help cricketers improve their performance.

Being Mentally Tough

Mental toughness is essential for elite cricketers. The long periods of competition, being away from home, and international media scrutiny can easily take their toll on even the best players. Research has found four key components to developing mental toughness in cricket. These included:

• Tough character – requires independence, resilience, and confidence.
• Tough attitude–an elite cricketer is willing to take risks and believes in the power of preparation.
• Self-awareness–being focused on the game and honest with yourself about your performance will help.
• Environmental influence–cricketers need an excellent environment to grow as players. This means surviving early setbacks to keep going. 

Who is going to win the #t20worldcup 2022? Will it be the host #Australia, the current #Asiacup2022 winner, Sri Lanka or the best and my favourite team, #India?

Either way, many are tipping this T20 World Cup to be a classic.

Whoever wins the T20 World Cup this year will have to play some great cricket. Of course, technical execution and tactical awareness will play a huge role, but what will be critical is the ability to perform under pressure and maintain confidence and concentration over a long period of time during the entire 'T20 World Cup Campaign'.

By,

Sudeepa Bose (Witty Wordsmith)

(Content Creator & Sports Enthusiast)