The 17th season of the Indian Premier League has been favourable for batters, with runs raining in sixes and boundaries. The addition of impact players has also rubbed salt on bowlers’ wounds.
Citing no help for the batters from the flat pitches, former Board of Control for Cricket in India chief and former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has expressed his concerns.
“Not easy for the bowlers. They are being carted all over, and that’s one area that needs to be looked at in the future, the balance between bat and ball,” Hindustan Times quoted Ganguly as saying.
On 26 April, the batters of Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings smashed 42 sixes at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. During the match, KKR batters hit eight sixes in the first innings, while PBKS recorded 24 maximums in the second.
Before this, the number of sixes was 28, both during the current season of IPL.
Following the match between KKR and PBKS, Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin took to X. He wrote a satirical post: “Save the bowlers, someone plsss (please).”
A week ago, former Indian cricketer and legendary player Sunil Gavaskar to suggested BCCI to make some changes in its rule to save bowlers.
According to him, the boundary ropes can be pushed a little more back, especially at smaller venues, pointing at the gap between the fence and the advertisement board where where the stands begin.
“I wouldn’t suggest any changes to a cricket bat because they are all within regulations, but I have been saying this for a long time, increase the size of the boundary at every ground. Look at this ground today, there is enough space to take it back a little more by a couple of metres. It can often prove to be the difference between a catch and a sixer. You can push that LED or advertisement boards even further so that the boundary rope can go back by 2-3 metres and that will make a difference. Otherwise, the bowlers are the only ones who will suffer,” HT quoted Gavaskar as saying while speaking to fellow India legend Anjum Chopra.
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Published: 27 Apr 2024, 07:01 PM IST