It has never really made sense to me that whilst we bat and bowl in pairs in a game, we have a “every person for themself” approach to nets, and therefore waste the opportunity to practice what we actually do in a game, and indeed waste time in general with an awful lot of hanging around.
I like to pair batters up, and pair them in scenarios relevant to a match scenario: 2 openers is an obvious one, but an opener that is ‘in’ with a middle order batter (maybe looking to accelerate or rebuild an innings), or a mid order with a tailender (looking to rotate the strike, hold on for a draw, see us home)
I like to pair the bowlers up as well, ideally to match up with the game scenario, and I bowl them in sets of 3 balls at the same batter, so:
- Bowler 1 bowls 3 balls at Batter 1, who then runs a single,
- Bowler 2 bowls 3 balls at Batter 2, who then runs a single,
- Bowler 1 bowls 3 balls at Batter 1, who then runs a single,
- Bowler 2 bowls 3 balls at Batter 2, who then runs a two.
- Bowler 1 bowls 3 balls at Batter 2, who then runs a single,
- Bowler 2 bowls 3 balls at Batter 1, who then runs a single,
- Bowler 1 bowls 3 balls at Batter 2, who then runs a single,
- Bowler 2 bowls 3 balls at Batter 1, who then runs a two.
This way batters and bowlers get some consistency by bowling/facing 3 balls at a time. Batters can get to know how each other bats and learn what to look for in their batting partner. Bowlers can talk to each other and work in pairs.