New Zealand's Glenn Phillips explores left-handed batting as weapon against left-arm spin ahead of India series

NEW DELHI: Gearing up for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India, New Zealand batter Glenn Phillips believes his increasingly polished left-handed batting could offer a glimpse into the future, particularly as an option against left-arm spin. Known for his unconventional approach, Phillips recently grabbed attention during a New Zealand Super Smash match against Central Districts, when he struck an unbeaten 90 for Otago last Tuesday.What caught the eye was not just the innings, but the way Phillips took apart left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox — batting left-handed, including a six over extra cover that would have cleared midwicket had he been batting in his natural right-handed stance."I do enjoy my left-handed batting training," Phillips was quoted saying in ESPNCricinfo."Obviously, I do it for multiple reasons. One, just to keep both hands and both sides of the brain working, but also just for the opportunity to, I guess, take down left-arm spin at some stage."In modern cricket, a ball turning away from the batter is considered a favourable match-up, which has led teams to increasingly rely on left-arm orthodox spinners due to the dominance of right-handed batters.Explaining the idea to New Zealand Cricket, Phillips said the innovation has been "a couple of years" in the making."It’s more of a future thing," he said."But for the opportunity to come in a game where there’s going to be a lot of left-arm off-spin bowling, I guess it sort of made sense to give it a go and bring it back to the forefront of the training leading into that game. And the fact that the opportunity came during the game to use it was quite good."Phillips acknowledged that several elements must come together before he fully commits to using his left-handed batting in competitive cricket."It's just trusting the training and understanding that I’ve just got to watch the ball as much as possible and I guess know that I’ve done the work and I’ve done the preparation and so there’s no reason it shouldn’t work," he said."But also, I guess, I generally have used it in the situation where there’s nothing left to lose. There’s a couple overs left and it’s now time for a bit of fun, I guess, really."New Zealand’s white-ball tour of India begins with an ODI in Vadodara on Sunday.Following the three-match ODI series, the sides will square off in a five-match T20I series, which will act as the final tune-up ahead of the T20 World Cup, starting February 7 and set to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka."The preparation is going to be perfect," Phillips said. "Obviously, the conditions may be a little bit different to what we’ll actually get in the World Cup."You never quite know what sort of pitches that people will produce, especially if we’re playing subcontinent teams."They tend to try and produce something that’s a little bit more spin-friendly. But when we're on this T20 and ODI tour, they tend to produce pitches that are really quite good," he concluded.