It was mid-August, 2017. The County season was in full swing, and a 24-year-old from Lancashire was hogging the limelight for his sheer bat-speed. While watching the highlights package on Youtube, one could not help but notice the audacious whips and drives, as he cracked a superlative double-ton against the likes of Olly Stone, Keith Barker and Chris Wright. Now 29, Liam Stephen Livingstone has since transformed himself into one of the most feared hitters in T20 cricket. But the image of Livingstone playing with such swagger in that County game has endured.
We saw further evidence of his confidence and chutzpah with the bat in hand when he cracked a 48-ball 94, in an IPL 2023 game against Delhi Capitals. The bat-speed was again noticeable as he landed one shot after another down the ground, over long leg and, occasionally, through extra-cover. On a pleasant night, he certainly lit up the picturesque Dharamsala ground with his fireworks.
Let’s do some number-crunching to gauge his value to a limited-overs side. Last season, he accrued 437 runs at an average of 36.42. More importantly, he scored those runs at an astounding strike-rate of 182.08. In fact, no one aggregated as many runs at a better strike-rate in 2022. This year, he joined the Punjab side on the back of concerns over an ankle injury. Despite missing the first few games, he has compiled 270 runs at a strike-rate of 170.89.
Having gone through those numbers, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Livingstone and New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips have been competing with each other in recent times to see who can club the most sixes in the shortest format. Incidentally, Livingstone once smacked Haris Rauf of Pakistan for a monstrous 122m six in 2021 – one of the biggest hits world cricket has seen.
#Livingstone and #Atharva stitch a stand of 77 but the required run-rate is now over 17 an over.#pbksvdc #ipl2023 pic.twitter.com/OG4qUSAeJd
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) May 17, 2023
It is true that Livingstone has his flaws. From a technical viewpoint, his critics have observed that his bottom-hand-dominance restricts his range of shots through the off-side. Although, with time, Livingstone seems to have worked on his game through that area. There is also a school of thought that in an attempt to give the ball an almighty thump, he ends up losing shape on some of his shots.
Just to illustrate that point further, in the game against Delhi, Livingstone had a chance to script a jailbreak when one of Ishant Sharma’s deliveries was correctly adjudged a no-ball. Unfortunately for Punjab and Livingstone, he couldn’t keep his eyes on the ball, and perhaps tried too hard to swing at the free-hit. Though it turned out to be a juicy full toss, he couldn’t connect.
In one of the previous games against Chennai Super Kings, he walked down the pitch to pull Tushar Deshpande. But Deshpande’s slower short delivery was well-directed and also reared up off the surface . All Livingstone could do was spoon a catch to midwicket. He had already collected three sixes in that over, and perhaps there was no need for premeditation.
Last year, in a bilateral series, Livingstone kept losing his wicket while attempting to pull almost every single short delivery that Hardik Pandya bowled. He probably needs to blend his instinctive, attacking game with a sprinkling of percentage cricket.
Alongside those bazooka strikes, Livingstone can alternate between bowling leg-spin and off-spin. His infectious energy on the field can also lift the bowlers. Kevin Pietersen, one of Livingstone’s childhood heroes, was the inspirational figure behind England’s T20 World Cup triumph in 2010. Livingstone may not be in Pietersen’s class, but the gut feel is that he can follow in his hero’s footsteps and do something similar on the big stage.