How Shai Hope proved you wrong

The story of how he evolved his T20 game

When Delhi Capitals bought Shai Hope for his base price of 75 lakhs, everyone was shocked. 

You’d think it was yet another instance of DC raising their paddle for the sake of it, but no. By the end of the season, Hope let the rest of the world know that the past does not dictate who he is now.

But why the rest of the world?

The Caribbean already knew he reinvented himself in white ball cricket; just ask the Guyanese. Going into last season, the Guyana Amazon Warriors had never won a final of the Caribbean Premier League, failing on six occasions. But enter Hope. Traded in from his home team Barbados Royals in 2022, he helped break the curse by scoring an even-ball 32 against the Trinbago Knight Riders to successfully chase down a target of 95 and keep the Guyanese’s hopes up for future seasons (pun intended). 

Sure, striking at a run-a-ball is far from impressive, but Hope played a big role in making the lucky number 7 trope true for the Amazon Warriors. He top-scored with 481 runs averaging 53.44 striking at 140.23. His top score of 106 off 44 balls against the Barbados Royals was also his maiden T20 ton, reaching it with a six in the final ball of the 16th over to smash Rakheem Cornwall for 32 runs.

That over was the joint most expensive in CPL history, and also a testament to how Hope never looked back at the times when not too long ago, he was often trolled for how slow he batted in the limited-overs formats. But it was only recently that he truly broke free from these reputational chains, as even during this year’s Indian Premier League, fans trolled teams he performed against given Hope’s reputation.

So how exactly did he prove you wrong?

Improved Intent

Signs of Hope’s ability to play with high intent were there in 2018, but they went under the radar. That year, he was Barbados’s top run-scorer and overall the 8th highest run-scorer. He scored 288 runs averaging 32 striking at 137.14 with a top score of 88 against an Amazon Warriors bowling attack that had the likes of Sohail Tanvir, Imran Tahir, and Chris Green. Hope was also the West Indies’s top-scorer when they toured Bangladesh, scoring 114 runs averaging 38 striking at 211.11. His top score of 55 came off 23 deliveries, successfully chasing a target of 130 with 55 balls to spare.

But what stands out the most is his Spin NBSR of 74.17 since last year. The NBSR is a measure of how well a batter is farming the strike. In an episode of Jarrod Kimber’s Red Inker podcast, Scottish analyst Ronan Alexander described a NBSR of 50 odd as very West Indian-like, and a NBSR of 70+ as Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers-esque.

Short Ball Game

Against pace, Hope has not only improved against the short ball, but is now also the most attacking against it. He’s gone from averaging 13.75 striking at 144.73 from 2015-2022 to now averaging 33.67 striking at 229.54 since last year. It’s all thanks to the pull shot; currently striking at 195.45 with it compared to 146.51 from 2015-2022.

Spin Domination

As the intent chart from earlier alludes to, Hope especially loves attacking spin. He has come a long way from largely cashing in on error balls. He now takes spinners on not just when it’s in his arc, but also when they are pulling their length back.

Hope’s huge improvement stems from three shots: the cover drive, pull, and slog sweep.

With the cover drive, he’s way more productive than he used to be, averaging 61 striking at 132.6 during 2015-2022 to now averaging 157 striking at 153.92 since last year. His ability to pull fuller lengths helps him to strike at 342.1 since last year with the pull shot. It is a quality that Shane Watson only developed when he became a T20 freelancer. Hope has always been very good with the slog sweep, and now he plays it more frequently.

Power Hitting Technique

It all comes together with his improved biomechanics, namely using his hips more to clear his front leg regularly.

As seen here, clearing the front leg allows Hope to access vast regions of the ground. The axis drawn on his hips and shoulders highlights the hip-shoulder separation, created by his side-on shoulders and opened-up hips. This helps accelerate the arm, generating high bat speed to impart as much force as possible on ball contact.

Hope has evolved with the times not by adding unconventional shots to his repertoire, but by innovating with what he has always been known for: conventional strokeplay. When we think of players like Hope in T20s, big names infamous for batting too slowly come to mind. Shai Hope was a lesser name his entire career, but he hasn’t let the past dictate his path. That is how he proved you wrong, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Thanks to @RishikeshwaranCA for computing the data