Gary Palmer returns with a technical analysis of England's man of the moment Ravi Bopari. Gary calls it his technical ABC to success at the highest level. Gary has coached many players into county cricket over the years, If you would like coaching from Gary, check out CCM Academy.

Ravi Bopara demonstrates the three key attributes of a good batsman. Ravi's technique is one that I would advise young players to copy. From the research I have done in coaching technique over the years, these are as simple as ABC:

• Alignment
• Balance
• Completion of shot

These are the technical areas that great players, especially attacking stroke players do very well. They all contribute to maximising a players hitting zone. The higher class of bowler you face, the better and more efficient the technique needs to be to combat that bowler. Once you have your ABC in order your technique is correct.

For this reason I think Ravi will be successful at international level and has the potential to become a great player.

Ravi displays a wide range of shots, all with a high level of technical excellence.

His setup is simple with a backswing over off stump and a stance that aligns his body to the line of the ball similar to this

He creates a 'diamond' during his backswing that allows his bat to stay on the line of the ball for longer. Click here to see the diamond shape illustrated.

Ravi is solid in defence, following his setup with a straight bat and correctly aligned body position.

In attack he plays straight where possible, looking to hit down the ground rather than square. He plays through the entire V, not just the off side. He maintains a high leading elbow after his shots and presents a full face of the bat at the ball. He does this by good positioning and alignment of feet. His back foot points up the wicket when driving straight and through mid on giving him good access to the ball. You can see these key points demonstrated here:

Ravi is a good player of spin because he looks to make contact with the ball under his eyes and after it has turned. His balance and alignment allows for the spin. Alistair Cook would do well to pay attention to his team mate.

Ravi's proficient technique allows him to play attacking shots with minimum risk of failure. This will give him confidence and belief to achieve challenging run chase situations with minimal nerves because he knows the percentages are in his favour.

This is why he is composed, highly focused and has very positive body language. He looks at ease with all of the different types of bowlers he faces and tends to look confident and relaxed at the crease.  He keeps it simple and plays the percentages with a very good technique, getting into great positions and make batting look easy.

There is very little Ravi needs to chance within his technique

He has a little trigger, especially in Twenty20, which is to back away with the back foot before he plays forward. The only positive for this movement is that it opens up a wider scoring area on the offside but if the ball pitches on off stump because he lines up to hit it square his bat is does not stay on the line of the ball for as long as it could. Therefore there is a slight risk.

If the ball swings or nips back into him then he is closed off and will have to play across the line which is a higher risk option minimising his scoring areas on the leg side.

However, overall Ravi's well polished technique offers very few flaws for a world class bowler to exploit. This will give him the upper when confronted with a duel against the best bowlers in the world.

Image credit: RobW

If you want to learn everything there is to know about technique, check out Gary Palmer's interactive coaching courses. Gary is a coach with over 20 years experience teaching players to become first class cricketers. For the first time he has put his drills online, only at PitchVision Academy.

All cricket skills are hard to learn, but do the wicketkeepers have it easy compared to the batsmen and bowlers?

Paul Collingwood took over the gloves against the West Indies when the first choice keeper Matt Prior injured his finger. He did a good job. The TV and radio commentators enjoyed mulling over how difficult wicketkeeping really is, even at Test level.

At its core wicketkeeping is about a skill most cricketers can perform: catching the ball. It's a task that is made all the easier by gloves. You could argue it's more difficult to stand at first slip without the aid of protection and catch balls flying off an edge at great speed.

Standing up is more difficult, but anyone could pick up the basics with a little practice. Like Collingwood, someone with a good pair of hands could do a competent enough job. You couldn't say the same about an opening batsman or swing bowler.

Duncan Fletcher, the innovative coach, has argued compellingly that it's far easier to teach a batsman how to catch than a catcher how to bat.

For these reasons the more specialist keeper has vanished from the game. All first class wicketkeepers these days must be able to bat. The simple truth is a decent batsman who can catch can do the job.

While these points are valid, they do miss a key element: You have to be prepared to do it.

Keeping wicket is difficult both physically and mentally. It's hard work crouching and concentrating on every ball of an innings and takes some getting used to. That's why, even in these days of batsmen-wicketkeepers, you almost always have a player who takes the gloves regularly.

The skills of wicketkeeping do get easier the more you practice them, so players need to be nailed down as keepers early so they can keep their standards high. This is especially true of standing up to the stumps. If you keep, always look to find someone to help you practice.

Yet despite all this work, the keeper is usually undervalued in a team. They only get noticed when they make a mistake. Unlike runs or wickets there is no strict measure of success for a wicketkeeper. You could look at byes and dismissals but both could arrive through no fault of the man with the gloves.

So for me, wicketkeeping is a skill anyone can perform but few bother to master (what's the point if you don't get much credit).