Want the best cricket shoes that you can afford? Searching for cricket spikes, trainers or boots online is time-consuming and not without drama – so let Cricket Yorkshire guide you.

Need to know the best cricket shoes for fast bowlers? We can help. Need independent advice on buying adidas cricket shoes? We’ll cover various cricket brands here in our guide for cricketers.

Cricket trainers or cricket boot?

There is no satisfying, off-the-shelf answer to this foot conundrum. It will largely depend on what feels comfortable to you. The encouraging news is that both have come on leaps and bounds.

You have both the high-cut bowling boots (with the cut being how high up the ankle the boot goes) and alternatively, there are cricket shoes – essentially trainers with spikes.

Some years back, my previous purchase had been a pair of top-of-the-range bowling boots.

No, not those colourful clogs with the seventies livery that they force you to put on indoors when you go in search of a double strike.

But, proper, bowling boots that various professional cricketers swore by.

They had a reinforced toe that was made from Batsman’s bulletproof underpants and a strap across the top of each foot that locked you in like a snowboarder.

Consequently, the ankle support they offered was fantastic but at the expense of negligible risk of a turned ankle, they had roughly the same weight as a deep-sea diver’s boots. And felt about as comfortable.

Cricket footwear is entirely a personal choice, not just to accommodate our weird and wonderful feet sizes and shapes but also how we walk and run.

Some cricketers will swear by a pair of boots that have seen them through 4,673 overs and are still going strong.

Others prefer lighter options that veer towards the standard trainer with the addition of spikes.

The power of cushioning

In an ideal world, none of us would wear footwear at all. We’re not designed as human beings to wear shoes. Until that nippy quick who’s won the Division bowling award three years running lands a yorker on your big toe.

But given the barefoot option is a little impractical nowadays, cocooning your foot with cushioning will reduce the impact of each step. And we all need it because the force of many times our body weight travels through our feet as we run.

It’s too simplistic to buy the cricket shoe with the most cushioning although it will likely as not decrease the chance of injury; it’s how it feels on and as you’re using it.

People tend to be shy about pacing purposely about the shop trying to get a real understanding of how they feel on their feet.

Don’t be. Testing, flexing and using the footwear in-store is part and parcel of making sure that ultimately you buy cannily.

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What shoes are best for cricket?

There is plenty of choice with the different types of cricket shoes but you want:

Fits well
Comfort / support
Grip

So, what shoes are best for cricket? The ones that feel right to you and your feet. There is no one brand that is THE best cricket shoe for fast bowlers or if you’re a batter.

Fitting Tips

Toe space scenario, you have your hands on the last pair in the whole of Europe of the adidas 22 YDS Boost cricket shoes. They only have a size nine and you’re a size ten.

Do you: a) cram your precious pinkies into this trendy foot cabin and suffer accordingly but win style points or b) accept with stoic good grace that life can be cruel but the Pro Viper Version 7 will be out soon enough?

The moral of the story is don’t compromise; make sure you have enough space in your cricket shoe to wiggle your toes a bit.

Sizing is crucial and if you’re going through growth spurts then re-check your feet size periodically because our cute baby feet inevitably someday will mushroom outwards like Big Foot.

Stability there’s little point in buying a bells-and-whistles cricket shoe if it’s too big and your foot moves about.

It needs to be comfortable but stable. A bowler, at the point of delivery, doesn’t want their foot sliding about, there’s enough things to think about when hurling down that 158mph bouncer.

Toe the line

A reinforced toe is a popular feature in bowling boots to protect you when that front foot plants and shudders into the ground or if you’re a batter facing the threat from speedy toe-squishing deliveries.

Another tactic is wearing several pairs (these cricket grip socks are a bestseller). This will pad out and cushion your toes that bit more and might mean you escape some of the foot punishment.

Whatever age of cricketer, we will all have our own brands and designs we like.

Fan of adidas cricket spikes? Can’t get enough of New Balance cricket shoes? Fair enough.

I mainly stuck to ASICS, GM or Gray Nicolls but this was years before New Balance, adidas and Puma swooped into the cricket market – here’s some updated product advice.

Thinking about adidas SL22 Boost, Vector, Adipower Vector Mid bowling boots, Howzat or SL22?

These come with the brand might of adidas and are popular, credible cricket shoes that have seen England Test cricket supremo Jimmy Anderson put his name to them.

The Adipower Vector range is more like a cricket spike you’re used to so lighter and more movement.

The Vector 20 Track Shoe is very popular and well-reviewed (but not cricket-specific).

The Adidas Adipower SL22 Cricket Shoe is geared towards batters.

Kookaburra Cricket Shoes

Kookaburra cricket shoes have all of that thought and experience that come with a brand whose focus is on cricket.

The Kookaburra KC Players Spikes, with their black/white combo is a stylish option with its focus being ultra-lightweight, breathable and lots of shock-absorbing tech packed into the shoe.