A rabbit in cricket is a slang used for players who are specialist bowlers or wicket-keepers. However, they possess minimal or no batting ability. Oftentimes, a rabbit is sent in as a No.11 batter.
Players who are designated as rabbit are given the batting role wherein they need to hold on to one end of the crease by avoiding dismissal. They do not have the added pressure of scoring runs and are allowed to contribute to the scoreboard at their own pace. In rare instance, the rabbit is also relieved from fielding duties. Another player substitutes the rabbit after a few overs in the innings.
Hoodoo is also a term that has been used for players with poor batting ability. It is derived from the word ‘voodoo’ that refers to something that brings bad luck.
A worse terminology that a cricketer can be tagged with is ferret. This is offensive as ferrets are players who are sent in the batting order after the rabbit. Since ferrets perform worse than rabbits, cricket pundits use the phrase “sends in a ferret after the rabbits.”
A prominent article published by The Guardian in 2000 saw them list all the players who were the worst rabbits ever in the sport since the second world war. These players were Phil Tufnell, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Devon Malcolm, Pommie Mbwanga, Glenn McGrath, Peter Such, Jim Griffiths, Alan Mullaly, Jim Higgs and Courtney Walsh.
The word rabbit and bunny are used interchangeably in literature. However, both these terms are tagged to two different types of players. The word bunny is used for a batter who is frequently dismissed by the same bowler. In such a case, the batter becomes the ‘bunny’ of the bowler.
In the era of T20 cricket, bunny batters are seen less as a team often encourages even its lower order batters to have pinch-hitting abilities, i.e., the ability to score boundaries irrespective of the stage of the match.
