Punjab Kings have appointed former England first-class cricketer Julian Ross Wood as their batting consultant for IPL 2022.Wood has a reputation as the pioneer in power-hitting coaching, having worked with players across the IPL, the Big Bash League and other T20 leagues. In the past, Wood has helped the likes of Ben Stokes, Prithvi Shaw, Sam Billings and Carlos Brathwaite with the science of staying still and hitting the ball out of the park. The 53-year-old will work on the Punjab batters alongside assistant coach Jonty Rhodes, who has been given additional responsibility this season besides the fielding department.
"We are jubilant to announce Julian Ross Wood as our new batting consultant for #TATAIPL2022," the team wrote on social media. Wood started to explore power-hitting after a stint with basketball on a holiday to the United States about 13 years ago. Since this coincided with the time T20 cricket started coming to the fore, he deep-dived into the art of power-hitting, and helped many cricketers excel in it. Julian Wood last played any kind of competitive cricket back in 2006. He didn’t play for England but featured for Hampshire in domestic cricket playing 27 FC and 35 List A matches scoring 960 and 1131 runs respectively in the two formats. However, Wood has made a name for himself through his special technique when it comes to power-hitting. In an earlier chat with the Indian Express, Julian Wood had claimed that he was the one who saw the change in cricket and hence, implemented a few power-hitting techniques which worked for many. “I saw where the game was going before anybody else. I am confident in saying that after speaking to a lot of players over the years,” he had said.
