Smriti an incredibly graceful player: Butcher

Mark Butcher keeps his word. “I will find you in half an hour,” he says. He sure does.

He says a lot more over the next half an hour. And you are fascinated. He is a sharp analyst of the game, and very articulate.

Earlier this year, his comparison of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s batting style with that of West Indies great Gary Sobers had attracted much attention. “I watched him make that 175 (off 80 balls) in the under-19 Cup final (against England at Harare).

“The incredible long high back-lift, the huge follow-through, the complete circle almost where the bat finishes around…you know, Sobers used to hit a lot of shots with his feet together.”

He believes what Sooryavanshi has achieved already is extraordinary. “Even if his career ends up not reaching the expectations that other people have, which I think is very unlikely, he has still done something at the IPL that all of the greatest players have never done before,” Butcher points out.

“None of them have managed to score a strike rate of 230, hit that many sixes, be that consistent in the entirety of the IPL.”

Butcher, himself a left-hander who played some brilliant Test hundreds for England, including an unforgettable match-winning 173 against Australia at Headingley in 2001, enjoys watching another southpaw. “Smriti Mandhana is just an incredibly graceful player,” he says. “Very, very lovely to watch. She reminds me of David Gower.”

Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues are also among his favourite batters. He shares his passion for music with Jemimah. They have, in fact, jammed together on guitar. “I like listening to Indian music, too. I enjoy all kinds of music.”

Looking back at his career, in which he scored 4,288 runs from 71 Tests, against some of the best bowlers of all time, he says the innings at Headingley will always remain closest to his heart.

“We won’t be talking if not for that innings,” says Butcher. “My main memory is about that summer, really. I wasn’t expecting to play Test cricket again. I went to my father and he completely changed my batting.”