Swing punishes batters who commit to the ball's early line. The ball starts on one line and finishes on another, so the batter who decides at release is playing where it was, not where it ends up. The counter is unglamorous and it works: play as late as you can, with the bat close to the body and under your eyes, and judge every ball against your stumps rather than against where it started. Half the deliveries in a swinging spell do not need to be played at all.
The later you play, the less swing there is left to beat you. Everything below serves this.
This is the single biggest adjustment when the ball is moving.
Swing is not constant. Reading when it will happen is half of playing it.
Pressing forward before the ball has moved. A committed front foot cannot adjust. Stay balanced and let the length come to you.
Driving on the up, away from the body. The classic dismissal in England: a wide half-volley that isn't quite there, driven with hard hands, edged to slip.
Playing at everything. If it isn't threatening your stumps and it isn't there to hit, it isn't your ball.
Neither by default — balance first, then react to length. Against pace and movement, committing early is the error. Keep your weight centred so you can go forward to a genuine half-volley and back to anything short, and let the ball's length make the decision rather than your intention.
Usually reaching for a wide ball you never had to play, with hard hands and the bat away from the body. Two fixes: judge line against your stumps so those balls become leaves, and play what you do play later, under your eyes, with a looser bottom hand.
The principles are the same but the margins are tighter — reverse tends to move later and often the opposite way to what the shine suggests. Playing late helps more, not less, and the leave becomes harder to judge because the ball can come back in at the stumps.
Sticks watches your net session through your phone and speaks this exact kind of coaching in your earbuds, one focus per ball — in English or Hindi. Video never leaves your phone, and it's free to start.