This is a wonderful tale of the great stories and evolution of batting, from Grace to Root. Kimber covers the history and present to celebrate batting in a cracking read. Get on the front foot and buy a copy.

Jarrod Kimber is one of cricket’s most distinctive writers. His insight, curiosity and constant challenging of accepted cricketing wisdoms, fuelled by his passionate fascination with cricket’s past, present and future, bring fresh perspectives on the sport.

I always thought Jarrod was a master of words. I loved how he navigated passages with his vocabulary. And then, I began noticing some very intelligent use of analytics. He now straddles these two worlds with the ease few possess.

In The Art of Batting, Jarrod Kimber further cements himself as the world’s best cricket writer. He’s an astute observer of how the games we play, and how they evolve in concert or opposition with the world, reveal the true nature of a man hiding in plain sight. A raucous stadium, on Boxing Day in his native Australia, in the corner of a foreign field in India, or in the palace of Lord’s in London, is only where years and years of private work are realised. Modern sports might look like mass entertainment, but they remain a deeply personal quest to find and nurture each person’s artistic soul. That’s the world he uncovers and in the nuanced, literary (and delightfully funny) telling of this story Kimber is a man at the peak of his powers.

Jarrod Kimber’s writing is as irreverent as it is forensic – a highly entertaining and informative read on the elusive arts of batting and run-making.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know by now that Jarrod Kimber is the finest contemporary young cricket writer.

Kimber is a 22nd-century cricket writer

When I first started Jarrod’s book I thought ‘oh great, another book on batting.’ Bloody batsmen, it’s all about their batting averages and batting contracts. Blah-di-bloody-blah. But the book’s insights into the science, analysis of why and how great batsmen performed in all eras of cricket was particularly enlightening. A very courageous innings to pick your best 50 Test batsmen of all time including a surprise Number 1. All very interesting and insightful. For what is in the end… another bloody book about batting!