Four innings, four low scores. A nick to the keeper, an lbw playing across the line, a run-out you still replay at night, and a soft dismissal to a ball you would normally leave. Now you’re walking out again, and the walk to the crease feels longer than it has ever felt.
Every batter at every level goes through a batting slump. Technique doesn’t vanish in a fortnight, so what changes? Mostly it’s what happens in the mind between deliveries. I work with elite athletes on the inner game, and my motto is simple: I make winners win more. This article is about how cricketers break out of a run of low scores by working on the part of batting nobody sees: the inner conversation, the self-image and the identity you take to the middle.
- A batting slump is rarely a technical collapse. It’s usually a mind that has started protecting the batter instead of trusting them.
- Low scores change your self-image if you let them. Breaking out starts by separating “I’m out of runs” from “I’m out of form as a player”.
- Over-fixing technique in the nets often deepens the slump. Simplify instead: one cue, one plan, one ball at a time.
- Bat from identity, not from the last four scores. The scoreboard reflects who you are over time, not this week.
What a batting slump really is
On paper, a batting slump is just a sequence of numbers. In the dressing room, each low score adds weight to the next innings, until the batter is carrying all of them out to the middle.
That extra weight changes how you play. You start feeling for the ball outside off stump instead of leaving it. You either freeze or try to hit your way out of trouble in the first over. None of this is a sudden loss of skill. It’s a mind that is now trying to avoid failure instead of trying to score runs.
The two batters inside every slump
- The survivor: “Please don’t get out early again. Just get through the first ten balls.” Every ball is a threat.
- The batter: “Watch the ball out of the hand. Leave well. Score when it’s in my area.” Every ball is information.
Same player, same technique. The survivor plays the scoreboard. The batter plays the ball.
Why low scores get inside your head
Batting is unusual. One mistake and your day is over, and you might face only a handful of balls in a week. That gives your mind lots of time to replay each dismissal.
Your subconscious learns from repetition. If you spend the days between games replaying edges and lbws, you are rehearsing getting out. Then you walk to the crease with those images fresh, and your body reacts to them before the bowler has even reached the top of the mark.
Add selection talk and the feeling that everyone is watching your next innings, and the slump stops being about cricket and starts being about who you are.
“You don’t break a batting slump by forcing a big score. You break it by playing the next ball the way the player you really are would play it.”
Self-image: the hidden scoreboard
Maxwell Maltz, the surgeon who wrote Psycho-Cybernetics, argued that we act in line with our self-image. Change the picture you hold of yourself, and your behaviour follows. That idea matters enormously during a batting slump.
Four low scores can quietly rewrite your self-image from “I’m a run-scorer” to “I’m struggling” or even “maybe I’m not good enough at this level”. Once that new picture forms, your body starts playing to it. You hesitate. You poke. You look for a way out.
The work is to protect the deeper picture. You have made runs before against good bowling. The skills that did that are still in your body. A short run of low scores is a result, not an identity. Say it plainly to yourself: “I’m a batter who is out of runs right now. I’m not a batter who has lost the ability to make them.”
Stop over-fixing in the nets
The natural response to a slump is to hit hundreds of balls and pull your technique apart. A little technical work can help if there’s a clear, specific fault. But when every session becomes a hunt for what’s wrong, you walk into the next match with ten thoughts in your head and no trust in any of them.
Simplify. Agree one technical cue with your coach, something like “head still, eyes level”, and let everything else go. The goal of the nets during a slump is to feel like yourself again, not to rebuild a new batter.
A simple net session for breaking a slump
- Leave well first: ten minutes just judging line and leaving balls outside off. It rebuilds trust in your eyes.
- Bat in scenarios: “first ten balls of an innings”, “new batter after a wicket”. Practise the exact moments that feel hardest.
- Finish on your strength: end every session with your best scoring shot, so the last image your mind stores is success.
The first twenty balls
A batting slump lives in the first part of an innings. That’s where most low scores happen and where anxiety is highest. So plan those balls instead of hoping you’ll get through them.
Know your scoring options against the opening bowlers before you walk out. Pick one or two low-risk ways to get off the mark. Decide in advance which balls you’ll leave. Between deliveries, walk away towards square leg, breathe out slowly, and bring your attention back to one cue before the bowler turns. If you’ve read our piece on batting under pressure, you’ll recognise this: the routine between balls protects the next ball from the last one.
Give yourself permission to look ugly. A scrappy twenty can be the innings that ends the slump.
Rewriting the inner conversation off the field
The days between games matter as much as the nets. If your mind replays the last dismissal fifty times, that’s fifty repetitions of getting out. Use those quiet moments for deliberate rehearsal instead.
Maltz called this the theatre of the mind. Sit somewhere quiet and see a full innings: walking out, taking guard, leaving the first ball, the sound of a clean drive, rotating strike, raising your bat. Include a play-and-miss and see yourself reset. Repetition, not intensity, is what changes your default.
Batting from identity
The batters who come through slumps fastest don’t treat every innings as a trial of their worth. They have a stable sense of who they are as players: “I’m a batter who values my wicket and punishes bad balls.” That identity holds whether they made a hundred last week or a duck.
When identity is steady, a low score is just a low score. Competing from identity is what turns a slump from a crisis into a phase.
FAQ
How long does a batting slump usually last?
There’s no fixed length. Some slumps last a few innings and some a whole season. What usually shortens them is a calmer mind, simpler preparation and a self-image that isn’t tied to the last few scores.
Should I change my technique during a batting slump?
Only if you and your coach can see a clear, specific fault. Otherwise, big technical changes in the middle of a slump often add confusion. One simple cue is usually better than many new ideas.
What do you think about when batting out of a slump?
As little as possible about the score. Focus on watching the ball, your plan for that bowler and a short routine between deliveries.
Can mental coaching help a batter in a slump?
Yes. Elite batters already have the skills. Mental coaching works on the self-image, inner conversation and routines that let those skills show up again under pressure.
Walk out as the batter you are
If you’re a professional cricketer stuck in a run of low scores, or you simply want to stop the next one before it starts, the turnaround begins in your mind before it shows on the scoreboard. The Orbits works privately with elite cricketers on identity, subconscious reprogramming and clutch pressure. Start with two free calls and feel the difference for yourself: apply to work with The Orbits.