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‘How many grips should one put on a cricket bat?‘, is a question that comes across every cricketer’s mind when they want to purchase a bat. Today we’ll talk about the various grip choices a batsman makes for a comfortable batting session.
A cricket bat has one grip when you have freshly purchased them from the store. However, adding a grip makes the handle thicker which also helps improve control. An extra grip has extra weight, so it may also change the balance of the bat. Although, it is an individual choice and each player should decide on his own.
Having A Single Cricket Bat Grip
The basic thing to be aware of while purchasing a bat is that they are not specifically made for larger hands and hence it depends on everyone’s own comfort. Having a single cricket bat grip, for some people, is more comfortable and fits comfortably with their grip and batting stance. However, others may feel that a single grip is uncomfortable or may decrease their precision.
It really depends on what gets you going. For some batsmen, a bat which comes directly from the factory seems like the perfect fit. However, for some who aren’t that comfortable with a single grip and face issues like the bat grip sliding or slipping through the hands, they add multiple grips to decrease the weight of the bat and lift it easily.
Why Have Multiple Cricket Bat Grips?
This question plays a very important role because a grip is a key element for the batsman to play freely. A bat with multiple grips changes the weight and balance of the bat change as per your needs. The handle of the bat becomes thicker and provides you with a solid grip, especially for players with big hands.
Having 2 grips is popular, but some players even use 4-5 grips at once as per their needs. The main reason behind having multiple bat grips is to make the handle thicker. That helps the grip take up the extra space in the hands and makes the batsman more comfortable with his grip while batting.
Having Large Hands
A single grip bat which comes straight from the factory may not be the best fit for a player with large hands. Usually, players with large hands feel pretty loose as they hold the bat and here, having multiple grips plays a crucial role.
The handle of the bat gets thicker and hence takes up all the extra space of the large hands of the batsman and also allows them to comfortably lift the bat up without any hesitation and catch hold of the bat with a solid grip. There are some batters that have really huge hands to the point that three or more grips are needed for them to feel more secure and comfortable while batting. It all depends on what the batsman wants in the end.
Counterbalance
This is an interesting approach to having multiple grips on your cricket bat. Having multiple grips is helpful to counterbalance a bottom-heavy bat. When you apply more than one grip on a heavy bat, the handle gets thicker which instantly shifts the weight and balance of the heavy bat to the middle as the thicker handle makes the bat seem to be much lighter when picked up.
So, when the batsman picks up a heavy bat with multiple grips, the weight of the multiple grips shifts the heavy bottom to the centre and makes it comfortable for use and that is a huge advantage for players.
Psychological Reasons
At the end of the day, it all depends upon what the player wants and how they want it. It may feel better for the player’s comfort, and mental state for some reason as having things the way they want during practice or even a big game may boost their morale.
Psychologically, in their head, if they feel comfortable with a single grip, a double grip may not provide them with the comfort physically or mentally which may cause them to overthink their decisions. Hence, they must certainly go with what helps them feel more confident when held.
Should You Double Grip a Cricket Bat?
Certainly, having an extra grip will thicken the handle, but not too much. If a player is comfortable with a single grip there will be no need to double grip a bat. Although if it’s a heavy bottom bat then you must double grip it to bring around the balance in the bat. For some people having 2 grips will ruin their precision so it clearly sums up to what the choice of the batsman is.
You should double grip the bat if you have a huge hand or in general, as it takes up the extra hand space and provides comfort to you while batting and makes the bat feel lighter.
Conclusion
All in all, I’d just like to say that it depends on the choice and comfort of the batsman and you must definitely try it in action in order to make your decision around having one or multiple grips on your cricket bat.
