Presenting David Wigley’s latest exercise designed to get you performing like the pros.

3. Target Bowling

Statistics prove that the best seam bowlers in the world pitch an enormous percentage of balls within a specific area of the wicket in the longer forms of the game.

This area can be easily marked out with cones, chalk if you happen to be indoors or spray paint if you’re practicing outdoors and should resemble a long rectangle. The width for bowling against a right-handed batter should begin at the line of middle and off-stump and finish approximately where an imaginary fifth or sixth stump would appear if you added them to the off-side. The length can be measured from the back line of the batting crease and should start approximately five metres from the line and finish another two metres down the pitch (five to seven metres from the back line from the crease).

Multicoloured hedgehogs have long been renowned as fearless players of fast bowling

World-class Test bowlers will aspire to hit this target area about 32-34 times in a 36-ball (six-over) spell. The nearer you can get to that, the better! And the only way you’re going to do that is by practicing. Get yourself a bucket of balls and get bowling, recording your performance as you go. Make sure you concentrate throughout your spell, it is very easy to tick over on autopilot but it is absolutely vital you practice as hard as you mean to play. Short, intense periods of training are better than protracted periods of just going through the motions. Be honest with yourself about your results and your accuracy should swiftly improve.

Good luck!