Batting analysis in the nets

Can an app analyse your batting?

It can analyse the bowling you face, which is a good place to start. YORKER AI tracks every ball bowled at you in the nets: its bowling speed, line and length, where it bounced, swing, spin, 3D trajectory and a clip of you playing it. Full batting analytics are coming soon.

What you get today is a record of every ball you faced and a way to sort it. Filter a session by line and length, bowler, bowling arm and bowling speed, and you're left with the balls you want to study, each with its clip. Watch the same kind of ball several times in a row and your habits start to show.

How do you set up a batting net session to learn from it?

Film from behind the bowler's end, the same as for bowling, and go in with a plan. With the phone on a tripod and both sets of stumps lined up, every ball bowled at you is picked up and clipped on its own. Setup takes about thirty seconds.

1. Phone on a tripod behind the bowler's stumpsIn line with the middle of the pitch, in portrait, with both sets of stumps in view. You're batting at the far end, so you'll be in every clip.
2. Line up the stumps and start the sessionBatter's stumps in the far box, bowler's stumps in the near box, then calibrate.
3. One batter per sessionWhen batters swap, end the session and start a new one. Each session is then one batter's net, and every ball in it is a ball that batter faced.
4. Agree a plan with your bowlersTell them what you want to work on, like the short ball or a full length outside off, so you get plenty of the balls you came for.
5. Bat as you would in a matchLeave what you'd leave and play what you'd play. If you try to hit every ball, the clips won't tell you much.

If several bowlers share the net, the app groups the balls by who bowled them, from the way each one runs in. Tag each group with a name once and you can filter by bowler. The tracking runs on the phone, so the nets don't need signal, and your clips sync once you're back online. Our guide to phone tripod setup in the nets covers height, light and framing.

What should you look for in the balls you faced?

Patterns across many balls. Sort them by length first, then by line, and watch each group back to back. You're looking for the lengths and lines where your response changes from ball to ball, or where you keep getting beaten, edging or getting hit on the pad.

• Length. Did you pick it early? Watch whether you went forward to the full balls and back to the short ones, or got stuck in between.
• Line. Outside off stump, which balls did you leave and which did you chase? Watch the ones you played at and ask whether you needed to.
• Bowling speed. Set the quicker balls beside the slower ones and see whether you start moving later against the quick ones.
• Bowling arm. Left-arm and right-arm bowlers come at you from different angles, so look at them separately.

How do you find the lines and lengths that trouble you?

Use the filter. In YORKER AI, the line and length grid shows how many balls were bowled on each line and each length, so you can pick a box, say a good length on off stump, and see only those balls. Then watch them in a row and look at what you did with each one.

How do you compare the short ball and the full ball?

Filter them separately and watch each set in a row. Pick Short and Bouncer for one set, then Full, Half-volley and Yorker for the other. Side by side, they show whether you're going back to the short ones and forward to the full ones, or committing too early either way.

Look at your head and feet in each clip as the ball arrives. If one set looks messy, that's your next session's plan: ask your bowlers for more of that length, then check the filter afterwards to see they bowled it.

Each ball also has its own page with a pitch map, showing where it bounced among the rest of the session, and a beehive, showing where it passed your stumps and at what height.

How do you practise against fast bowling in the nets?

Face your quick bowlers in short spells with a clear plan, then go through the clips by bowling speed. Every ball shows its bowling speed, so you know what you faced, and the bowling speed slider in the filter pulls out just the quicker balls so you can see how you played them.

Compare the quicker balls with the slower ones from the same bowler. If your trigger movement or your bat comes down later against the quick ones, you'll see it when they're side by side. Wear a helmet for any work against a hard ball, and build up to the short stuff.

How do you review your batting against spin?

Filter to your spinners and watch how you played the balls that turned. Each ball shows how much it turned and where it pitched, so you can see which lengths you went down the pitch to, which you played from the crease and which beat you.

Spinners vary their bowling speed as well as their length, so try the bowling speed slider here too. The slower, loopier balls and the quicker, flatter ones often ask different things of your feet.

Which batting drills work in the nets?

Drills with one clear target, so you can check the result afterwards. Ask the bowlers for one line or length at a time and filter the session to that ball when you're done. The filter tells you whether they bowled it, and the clips show how you played it.

• Off stump channel. Bowlers aim on and just outside off stump, and you leave or defend anything you don't need to play. Afterwards, filter to Off and Outside Off and watch which ones you followed.
• Short ball set. A set of short balls from one bowler, at a bowling speed you're comfortable against. Filter to Short and Bouncer and watch whether you got into line, got out of the way or got stuck.
• Full and straight. Yorkers, half-volleys and full balls at the stumps. Filter to those lengths on Middle and check your bat came down straight.
• Left arm, right arm. If you have both in the net, split the session by bowling arm and compare how you played each.
• Match scenario. Agree a target and a set of overs with the bowlers, bat to it, then go back over the balls that beat you.

How do you review your batting clips?

In sets of the same ball. Filter to one type of delivery, then swipe through the clips like Reels with the bowling speed, line and length on each. Replay a ball in 3D from the batter's view to see what you were facing as it came down the pitch.

Each ball's page has the clip, its numbers, a 3D replay you can turn to any angle and the pitch map and beehive. Pick out the clips you want and cut them into a film with the numbers on screen, or share the session with your coach in a Huddle. For how the app follows the ball, read how ball tracking works.

Can you settle an LBW argument in the nets?

Yes, with a review. Make the call first, out or not out. YORKER AI then checks contact, pitching, impact and wicket one at a time and gives the decision with a 3D replay. If a check is too close to overturn the call, the call you made stands.

The review works out from the clip which hand you bat with, because that decides which side is leg side when it checks where the ball pitched. Read more about DRS on your phone.