BJ Watling: New Zealand's chauffeur in a crisis

The most important aspect of batting in BJ Watling’s mind is the ability to set aside whatever has gone before your innings and focus simply on what’s happening in the present moment and ‘get up for the fight.’

If there was ever a batsman in New Zealand test cricketing history who was up for the fight, it was BJ Watling.

New Zealand’s chauffeur in a crisis.

Just under 3800 test runs at 37 and a half runs per dismissal. 8 hundreds and a highest score of 205.

Holder of both the 2nd and 3rd highest partnerships for the 6th wicket in test history (that’s in more than 2500 test matches), the 7th highest score in tests as a wicketkeeper, he averaged 53 against England at a time when two of the greatest fast-bowlers of all-time James Anderson and Stuart Broad were at the peak of their powers, and perhaps most tellingly, averaged more than 40 when New Zealand lost the toss, BJ Watling made a habit out of scoring tough runs.

Watling shares the evolution of his technique, how he battled to handle failure and the pressure to perform on the global stage, his match preparation blueprint, developing his tactical appreciation for how bowlers were trying to get him out and how his mental routine helped him to stay present in the moment.

These types of changes aren’t something you can complete overnight. You’re talking about rewiring your physical habits. This takes time. In BJ’s case, he said it took him up to 18 months.

1. Technical Adjustments: The evolution of batting technique

Front foot adjustment

When BJ entered professional cricket, he spoke about the challenge of facing Chris Martin. The veteran New Zealand swing bowler had the ability to move the ball back into the right-hander and Watling found himself wrapped on the pad more often than he’d like.

It got to the point where Watling felt he had no option but to reassess his technique, so the following winter he began the process of making changes to his front-foot plant. His issue was that his front-foot finished further to the off-side than his back-foot. Inadvertently, he was closing his hips off, making it harder to plat through the leg-side, particularly to a late in-swing delivery.

So, alongside this, his head was also falling slightly towards the off-side, impacting his balance as well. It’s the type of technical flaw that isn’t always noticeable against slower bowlers and in batter-friendly conditions. However, under pressure in a match when your nerves are on edge, your movements are pronounced, the ball is moving around through the air and you’re facing a top-quality bowler.

BJ talks about it in more detail below:

The role of a pre-delivery movement

Moving your body before the bowler delivers is thought to help you make your next movement more efficient, which is particularly helpful when facing genuine pace. BJ had a pre-delivery movement for much of his career.

A pre-delivery movement isn’t something that everyone uses. It’s not something I even tried until I was in my early thirties. If it’s not done correctly, it can do more harm than good. However, it’s worth a try and if it helps you move while also allowing you to maintain balance, then why not introduce it into your game?

Adapting to unique bowlers

Some bowlers naturally find an edge over you. Whether it’s their ability to swing the ball late, hit them seam, extract extra bounce out of the wicket or they have a unique action that hides the ball from view until just before release and it ruins your timing of movements.

For BJ, one of these bowlers was Kemar Roach. He talks about the challenges he faced with Roach and how he went about resolving those issues.

2. Mental Resilience: Handling Failure and Pressure

Dealing with Failure

Intriguingly, BJ was critical of himself when he spoke about his ability to deal with failure. Surprisingly, he also felt that it was a topic that he struggled with more as his career progressed.

His recollection of watching Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum at the peak of their powers is telling. He talks about how he’d look at them and they’d look invincible and there was a feeling that he couldn’t wait to be at that stage of his career.

The Fight Mentality

I played club cricket alongside former Blackcap quick Andy McKay. He spoke about BJ in glowing terms from their time playing together. He mentioned that he loved to use the word ‘fight’ when batting in the middle. I asked him why the word meant so much to him given he embodied it every time he wore the black cap (or helmet).

Mentioning the word fight got him thinking and it spurred on a conversation about one innings Kane Williamson played for the Northern Brave earlier this season.

The Role of Expectations

One might expect the fear of failure to be better managed as you go deeper into your career, but Watling found the opposite to be correct. It’s fair to assume that the weight of expectations had a significant impact on curtailing his career.

For those aspiring players planning to have a lengthy career, putting time into building a plan for handling these external pressures would go a long way to giving you the best chance of success.

Do you avoid all media – television, newspapers, social media – or do you constantly work on accepting you’re not going to be everyone’s cup of tea and continually narrow your focus on the controllables and what you can do to improve your current situation.

Meditation is a great way to allows these natural thoughts and feelings to wash over you – accepting them as part of life, acknowledging their presence but not prescribing too much weight to their existence.

3. The Blueprint for Preparation: From Training to Match Day

Two Days Out: Exploring Options

Watling worked out his weekly training routine and what gave him the best chance of success and a key aspect to this is the time he gave to exploring scoring options base on the conditions likely in his next innings.

He used two days out from match day to experiment a little when it comes to scoring options e.g. removing the sweep shot from his repertoire on wickets with a little extra bounce.

Match Day Minus One: Honing the Approach

The day before the match, Watling spoke about using this training session to drill into his batting plan against beach type of bowler to ensure his instincts were honed for the contest.

He also spoke about how sometimes his best innings came on the back of a couple of underwhelming batting sessions in the lead up to the game. Watling is typically humble, but he was clear in articulating that one of his strengths was his mental strength to put aside anything that went before game day.

A key phrase he used was “f*ck it.” It’s a phrase I’ve seen Jos Buttler write on the top of his handle as a way of reminding himself to stop overthinking and simply trust himself to take the best option on each ball, even if he makes the odd mistake.

Game Day: Trusting What You Have

Being able to separate your week’s preparation from what happens on game day is crucial. Training conditions and scenarios are often artificial anyway, so to give too much weight to their importance can be counterproductive and someone like Watling was as quietly competitive as anyone who’s played test cricket. That attribute could be seen every time he batted and brought out the best in him.

I’d advise anyone to visualise the whole scenario you expect to walk out to bat in during your next innings – the temperature, brightness or darkness of light, sights, sounds, bowlers’ actions etc., the lot!

This will start preparing your body and mind for the contest and by ‘seeing’ yourself do well in a range of conditions and match scenarios, your confidence will increase, even though you haven’t physically done it yet.

If you do have one of those weeks where nothing goes right e.g. the kids aren’t sleeping and neither are you, you have an argument with a loved one that you regret, it rains all week and you either don’t get to train or have to train indoors etc., you need to be able to trust that all the work you’ve done in previous weeks and years has set you up well to be successful.

That this week’s preparation is helpful but not essential. Ensuring when the bowler runs in to deliver your first ball, you’re mentally fresh and exciting to take on the challenge to test yourself against the best the opposition has to offer.

4. Tactical Awareness: Understanding the Opposition (300 words)

Reading the Bowler

When it comes to problem-solving in the middle, Watling says his biggest challenge was getting used to the angle that Kemar Roach delivers from. He’s uniquely wide on the crease and can swing the ball both ways. Watling had to make some changes to his set up to combat his threat.

Staying Ahead of the Game

As much as you need to be focused on your own routines, the longer you play the game, the more chance an opponent has a chance to build strong plans to target your weaknesses. By understanding how a bowler is trying to get you out you can stay one step ahead of them and be ready to capitalise on any of their bad balls. It’s an empowering feeling when you acknowledge your weaknesses and have a plan for managing those deliveries.

Using Video Analysis

Video analysis is utilised more now than ever. Bowlers can analyse a batsman’s strengths and weaknesses and batsmen can do the same to a bowler. Watling wasn’t a big fan of watching himself bat on video because of a critical eye that meant he’d noticed something that he’d like to change, however he did use it to reinforce some good habits.

Watling makes a crucial point here that this whole routine is ideal for trying to deal with distractions such as hostile crowds, sledging or those little moments of self-doubt.

Conclusion

The key takeaways from Watling’s insightful discussion include the importance of adapting your technique when you’re struggling to deal with a particular bowler or delivery, managing the psychological challenges that the game brings at the highest level is crucial to ensuring success on the pitch, and preparing effectively is the only way to give yourself the best chance of success.

Success often lies in simplicity: trusting the preparation that you’ve done, staying present in the very moment you’re in ball after ball, and finding a way to maintain that hunger for big scores.

The lessons from BJ Watling’s career — technical mastery, mental resilience, and tactical awareness — are applicable beyond the game itself and will stand you in good stead when you pursue your life after cricket.