You can't hit from batting position and can't bat from hitting position: Power-hitting coach Julian Wood

Julian Wood saw it coming before anyone else and the pioneering power-hitting coach reckons the role of cricketers with brute power will only increase in the rapidly evolving Twenty20 format, forcing the "touch and skill" batters to reinvent their game. Wood, a former first-class cricketer from England, is in India for his maiden IPL stint with Punjab Kings. It was an accidental meeting with the head coach of American baseball club Texas Rangers 12 years ago that changed the way Wood looked at the game of cricket.

With T20 games still at a nascent stage back then, Wood envisioned the significance of power-hitting increasing in the shortest format and fast forward to 2022, franchisees around the world are happy to pay a premium for batters who can clear the ropes with ridiculous ease. The fact that he is now part of the IPL also indicates that teams want their players to hone their big-hitting skills. "The time is right now where instead of having general batting coaches, you will see more of them having specialised batting coaches like me.

Franchisees too have decided that this is the way we need to go forward," Wood told PTI in an exclusive interaction. "Cricket has always been very traditional, and it always takes time to change. I said five years ago, in T20s we will have hitting coaches more than batting coaches, it's just starting to come through now." From baseball, Wood learnt how to generate power through the body and how science is at work when a batter makes the right contact with the ball to deposit into the stands.