In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batter who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play.[1] The nightwatchman's job is to maintain most of the strike until the close of play.
The name comes due to the goal of remaining in overnight after the end of the day, a play on words on the watchmen of public safety and law enforcement. In doing so they protect more capable batters from being out cheaply in what may be a period of tiredness or poor light at the end of the day and again the following morning when the early-morning conditions may favour the bowlers who will be refreshed from their night rest. The theory is that losing two top-order batters in quick succession would be worse than losing one top-order batter and a tailender.
The role of nightwatchman is generally given to players who emphasise defensive technique over quick run-scoring, most often a bowler who would normally bat in the 8th or 9th position. There have been occasions when nightwatchmen have made a big score and six have made centuries in test matches. The nightwatchman's goal tactically is to play conservatively on the night to get through the evening and then play a more even style to score runs and turn over the strike to their batting partner. Daniel Vettori would place himself in the role on several occasions while he was the New Zealand captain. Wicket-keepers may also take on the role, Alan Knott, Wasim Bari, Ben Barnett and Ian Healy have scored half-centuries in the role.
Even if the nightwatchman does survive until the end of the day, the beginning of the next day's play will see refreshed bowlers with better light facing a less capable batter. As a result, not all captains use the tactic. Steve Waugh abandoned the tactic during his captaincy of Australia.[2] Furthermore, under Ben Stokes England have instead favoured the lower order batsman to play aggressively (the nighthawk).[3] The defensive technique inherent to the role may also lead to their play being too slow for the conditions, the nightwatchman being too good to get out, but not good enough to score at the desired rate of their team.
The nightwatchman is not to be confused with the pinch hitter, a middle to lower order batter who is promoted up the order in limited-overs games, or in first-class games where their team is looking for a quick declaration, in the pursuit of quick runs without too much concern for their wicket.
The tactic has potential drawbacks. It is inherently a paradox to send out an inferior batter to attempt to survive the worst conditions a batter can face and their technique can fail them. If the nightwatchman gets out before the end of the day the batting team may need to send out a more capable batter to prevent the loss of further wickets, costing the team a wicket while negating any benefit from using the nightwatchman. In 2014 against India, the Australian side protected wicket-keeper Brad Haddin by sending out Nathan Lyon with half an hour to play. Lyon only lasted 4 overs, forcing Haddin to the crease to face a handful of overs and being dismissed on what became the final ball of the day.
In 2024 the Pakistan team in a match against Australia sent Sajid Khan as a nightwatchman after Saud Shakeel was dismissed by Josh Hazlewood with two overs left. This was done to protect genuine all-rounder Salman Ali Agha. The tactic failed miserably as Khan was bowled all ends up on his second ball faced. Salman then had to come out to bat anyway, and he only lasted two more balls before Hazlewood found an easily caught edge, finishing the over with a three wicket maiden.
It is very rare but not unknown for a team to use nightwatchmen when an innings begins late in the day. Teams will trust in the ability of the specialist opening batsman to do their usual job of handling the new ball regardless of how difficult that might be. Australian Captain and opening batter Mark Taylor has remarked that most batters will accept a nightwatchman when asked, but as an opener he had never been offered one.[4]
Rangana Herath opened the 2nd innings as a nightwatchman in the 1st Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 2009 having batted at 9 in the first innings. Herath took the final 6 balls of the day with usual opening batter Malinda Warnapura at the other end. The next morning Warnapura was out caught on the second ball of the day while Herath scored 15 off 60 balls before an LBW dismissal to Younis Khan. Jack Leach who normally batted 10th or 11th opened as a nightwatchman for England in a 2019 Test match against Ireland, surviving a single over at the evening then top-scoring for the innings with 92 runs the following day with Ireland collapsing in the last innings to be all out 38 chasing 182.
In the days before covered wickets it was common for teams to protect the upper part of the order from a sticky wicket by reversing the batting order and hoping to exchange the inevitable loss of wickets for the time it would take for the wicket to start playing better. Although not necessarily done late in the day, the reversed order effectively turned the promoted part of the order into nightwatchmen for the upper half. Don Bradman once scored 270 not out as the #7 batsman after such a reversal, with Bill O'Reilly and Chuck Fleetwood-Smith opening the batting and being dismissed for 0 runs each. It was the only time either opened the batting in their Test career.
There have been six test centuries by nightwatchmen (as of 2019[update]), as recognised by ESPNcricinfo:[5]
There has been debate about whether Nasim-ul-Ghani (who later opened in a Test) and wicketkeeper Boucher were genuine nightwatchmen – however, in the matches in question they both came in at No. 6, at the end of the day, ahead of more recognised batsmen, and Cricinfo considers them to have been nightwatchmen.[5]
Alex Tudor (of England) was close to making a century as a nightwatchman; he made 99 not out against New Zealand in 1999 at Edgbaston,[1] and was stranded one run short of his maiden test century when Graham Thorpe got the total to the point where a boundary was needed for the win with Tudor being on 95 runs, needing a six to reach his century. Tudor then hit the winning runs with a four, leaving him on 99*.
Also close was Harold Larwood. In the final Test of the 1932–33 Ashes, Larwood made 98 as a nightwatchman, the highest innings made in the role up to that time as well as the highest Test score Larwood would make in his career.