The Sweep shot: Unlike other batting skills, the sweep shot needs to be practiced on regular basis to procure result, otherwise while executing this skill in a match, batsmen often tend to miss and miscue them. This leads them to avoid this particular skill completely.
From below stats it is very clear that Indian batsmen played less sweep shots compared to England, and Australia hardly plays this effectively. Its no surprise that Dhoni is the last Indian of current generation batsman to play sweep proficiently.
In case there is any confusion with sweep shot stats. The balls faced are the “attempts” made by batsman in a match, and runs scored from those attempts. Surprisingly India attempted much less sweep shots(34 balls) compared to England who had 126 attempts.
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England in India(2012-13)
India (4 Tests, 7 Inns)
England (4 Tests, 8 Inns)
| India | Runs | balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | 6s | Wkts | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| All | 1959 | 4005 | 997 | 622 | 224 | 12 | 58 | 48.91 | 4.02 |
| The sweep shot | 54 | 34 | 24 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 158.82 | 1.42 |
| Reverse Sweep | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 00 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 | 1.50 |
The sweep shot (including the reverse sweep). No sixes hit!.
| India | Runs | balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | Wkts | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| Ashwin | 14 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 175.00 | 1.14 | |
| Yuvraj | 15 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 150.00 | 1.25 | |
| Sehwag | 8 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 266.67 | 1.50 |
| Sachin | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 225.00 | 1.33 | |
| Pujara | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 233.33 | 1.00 | |
| Harbhajan | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 33.33 | 3.00 | |
| Zaheer | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | |
| Dhoni | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| England | Runs | Balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | 6s | Wkts | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| All | 2314 | 5035 | 1086 | 665 | 220 | 18 | 57 | 45.96 | 4.64 |
| The sweep shot | 209 | 126 | 88 | 38 | 29 | 3 | 3 | 165.87 | 1.43 |
| Reverse Sweep | 21 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 190.91 | 1.57 |
The sweep shot (including the reverse sweep).
| England | Runs | balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | 6s | Wkts | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| Cook | 59 | 50 | 32 | 21 | 8 | 0 | 118.00 | 1.56 | |
| Pietersen | 39 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 216.67 | 1.50 |
| Prior | 29 | 16 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 181.25 | 1.45 | ||
| Trott | 28 | 17 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 164.71 | 1.21 | ||
| Swann | 16 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 266.67 | 1.50 | |
| Root | 10 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 200.00 | 1.25 | ||
| Compton | 12 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 171.43 | 1.40 | |
| Panesar | 8 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 400.00 | 1.00 | ||
| Bell | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 400.00 | 1.00 | |||
| Broad | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 100.00 | 1.00 | |||
| Patel | 2 | 1 | 1 | 200.00 | 1.00 | ||||
| Anderson | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
Australia in India (2013)
India ( 2 Tests, 3 Inns)
Australia (2 Tests, 4 Inns)
| India | Runs | balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | 6s | Wkts | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| All | 1125 | 1921 | 517 | 291 | 133 | 15 | 22 | 58.56 | 3.72 |
| The sweep shot | 33 | 30 | 17 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 110.00 | 1.76 |
| Reverse Sweep | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 200.00 | 2.00 |
The sweep shot (including the reverse sweep). So far none got out applying this sho
| India | Runs | Balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | 6s | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| Dhoni | 13 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 118.18 | 1.83 | |
| Harbhajan | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 233.33 | 1.50 |
| Sachin | 6 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 85.71 | 1.40 | |
| Vijay | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 80.00 | 1.67 | |
| Pujara | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 20.00 | 5.00 |
| Aus | Runs | balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | 6s | Wkts | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| All | 989 | 2268 | 495 | 301 | 96 | 10 | 39 | 43.61 | 4.58 |
| The sweep shot | 38 | 32 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 118.75 | 2.29 |
| Reverse Sweep | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The sweep shot (including the reverse sweep).
| Aus | Runs | balls | S S | 1ss | 4ss | Wkts | St.rate | Balls /ss |
| Cowan | 20 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 181.82 | 1.38 | |
| Warner | 10 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 200.00 | 1.25 |
| Mathew W | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 100.00 | 4.00 |
| Maxwell | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 400.00 | 1.00 |
| Siddle | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Lyon | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Henriques | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Clarke | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| Hughes | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
