In cricket, batters strike the ball articulately to score runs. The ball delivered by the bowler achieves speeds as high as 150 km/hr or can be slower but with a vicious turn upon pitching, or mid-air. To counter this, hand-eye coordination is paramount in addition to the bat. However, the bat too needs to be protected to face such deliveries repeatedly.
Though the cricket bat is made of high quality wood, to resist the impactful deliveries of the bowler, its thickness has increased over the years. Moreover, the power hitting nature of the sport due to its faster pace with the advent of T20 cricket has led to the development of better quality helmets, elbow and thigh guards, pads, and other protective equipment.
To protect the bat though, a toe guard is used at the bottom-end of the bat. In a new purchase, a bat would usually come with a toe guard. But over a period of time, the use of the bat wears it down. Thus, a new toe guard made of rubber when added to the bat increases its resistance. It also reduces the moisture uptake on the bat from the pitch, thus prolonging the life of the wood with which the bat is made.
A toe guard must never be installed minutes before the match. It is ideally adhered with an adhesive one day prior to the match. The bat must then be left untouched for nearly 12 hours such that an external weight compresses the portion of the toe guard consistently. Some batters use a sand paper to roughen the bat’s surface to improve the retention of the toe guard. Since the T20 era, the toe guard has become a norm in professional cricket.
