What do you watch when waiting to bat?
How to walk out best prepared
 Do you do these crucial things when waiting to bat?
1) Once you have all your gear on (excluding helmet) get a chair and sit in the same light as you will be batting in. Try and sit at deep third man as you get a good view of what is happening out in the middle. Have your bat, gloves and helmet with you so you can enter the ground from this point.
2) Watch the bowler. Does he have a closed or open bowling technique (does he have the ability to change?). How long is his run up? Where does his front foot land on the crease?
3) The delivery stride - does he always take a long step or jump in the air every time he bowls? What does this do to the delivery? Sometimes no leap in the delivery stride changes the trajectory or a bigger leap can mean a shorter delivery. Sometimes it makes no difference at all. What you need to do is learn the bowler's basic characteristics.
4) Every bowler has a stock delivery, try to pick it every time through the action, where it lands and the particular movement off the pitch.
5) Does the bowler have a slower ball? If he does how does he achieve it, is it out of the back of the hand? Is it a slower run up? (No leap at the delivery stride) Does he just slow his arm swing down? Or is it that he just pushes the wrist through rather than a "Flick"?
6) What other variety does the bowler have? A bouncer, yorker or the odd "inswinger" (especially with the bowler who bowls constant outswing, always be ready for the straight ball or the inswinger).
7) Look at the field placements for each bowler, generally if there are more than 2 slips I expect a bit of pace with a ball moving away (i.e. to a right hand bat). How deep is the fielder at square? If he is fairly deep expect the odd bouncer.
8) Where can I get a quick single and put the pressure back on the field? Always remember that the game is about running 1?s and 2?s, boundaries are always bonuses and you will eventually get an opportunity.
Early in your innings think about hitting the ball along the ground. There are 10 ways to be dismissed, and more wickets fall from catches than anything else, so if you hit the ball along the ground there are only nine other ways to get yourself out.
"Batsmen get themselves out bowlers provide the opportunity".
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