Bowling Dying In IPL 2024
IPL 2024 Killing Cricket? many believe so. Even though, ordinary fans all are enjoying IPL 2024? but sadly, it’s not that great if you consider cricket as a whole. This season, IPL has been a pure run-fest. Whoever got the power to hit the ball, are scoring big runs. This is giving so much adrenaline rush to audience, but the cricket is losing its way altogether. Why? Cricket has always been a ball and bat game. Yet, what we are witnessing in the IPL is pure batting.
Bowlers are getting nothing but a routine ball throwing, while the batters got the pitch, cricket rules, small boundaries on their side. Almost every team in the season made 200+ score at least once. This will quickly kill the pure joy of the cricket. That’s why many legends like Sunil Gavaskar were worried about the future of the game. Let’s dwell into this cricketing issue.
IPL 2024 Batting Powers
287, 277, 272, 267, 262, 261 246.. I don’t need to tell you what all these are!.. because everyone who watches IPL knows.. these are the scores made by some teams this season. Especially in this list 287, 277, 272, which are the top 3 scores, were scored by Sunrisers Hyderabad. After that, RCB and KKR scored 262 and 261. Punjab chased down the humongous target of 262 runs in 18.4 overs and won against KKR. RCB also chased down 206 in just 16 overs against GT.
Think about it.. It would be very exciting for fans if all batsmen hit sixes and fours every now and then. But, cricket is not just a batsman’s game. Cricket is a game of bat and ball. It means that bowlers also has the importance of batsmen in cricket. But if we look at the matches going on now, it seems that the importance of bowlers in cricket is completely diluted.
Where Are The Bowlers?
We know how bowlers like Sobers, Kapil Dev, McGrath, Wasim Akram, Brett Lee, Shane Bond, Shoaib Akhtar, Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Lasith Malinga… used to scare batsmen. Spinners like Shane Warne, Muttaya Muralitharan, Anil Kumble, Saqlain Mushtaq used to spin the ball and confuse the batsmen. But where are the bowlers like them now?
If a spinner is bowling, the less the ball crosses the boundary, the better the bowler is. When a pacer came to bowl, they had to leave all the slips and points and set the fielding near the boundaries. What is the reason for this? Has the quality of bowling gone down? Or are the players giving up bowling and becoming batsmen?
The Batters Game
India has always been known as the factory of batters. That means the priority is given to the batters here. In addition to that, the batters become part-time bowlers to add more value to them as players. But the bowlers find it difficult to hold the bat and score even minimum runs. As a result, their place in the team fell into danger.
That is why the idea that only a batter can stay in the team for a long time is filled in the minds of players. In addition to that, the popularity, celebrity status, stardom, name as a top player in India is hardly earned by any bowlers. That’s why even young players want to become batsmen from childhood but don’t want to take-up the ball to become bowlers. That is why quality bowling was diluted in our country.
Changes in Bats…
Changes in technology are also enabling the batsmen to play bold shots. Once upon a time cricket bat was very thin.. ordinary. But now there are many changes in the shape of those bats. In golden times, a cricket bat has only one sweet spot. But new bats made with high precision technology have two or three sweet spots.
Due to this, batters are able to hit the boundary without much effort. Also, in olden times, there was no curve in the bats, but the modern day bats bats are made with a good curve to handle the ball however you want. This made batting very easy for the batters.
Pitches Makes Matches
Another reason for this batting carnage in cricket is also the changes in pitches. In old times, if the match is overseas then batters had to face fast-paced pitches. If the matches are in India or the sub-continent, batters would’ve faced turning tracks. Both these pitches will help bowlers the most, and make batters earn every single run. But all this has changed a lot in recent times.
Especially in India, apart from turning tracks and pace tracks, pitches are being made to favor batting more. As a result, no matter how much the bowlers sweat, wickets are not falling. But the batters are hitting boundaries without any trouble. The audience also get their tickets worth entertainment by watching all the boundaries. Due to this, BCCI is getting more and more money, so the IPL management is preparing more batting-friendly pitches. In this money rain, the real cricket is drowning and suffocating.
Field Restrictions
The new field restriction rules also played a key role in reducing the impact of bowlers in the modern cricket. In old times, the first power play in a match was a batting power play. The bowling team then had the power to choose the remaining two power plays.
But ICC changed the rules and gave the batting team the right to choose a power play in these two. This increased the pressure on the bowling team. Bowling team had to use their power play within the 16th over to the 41st over (if its an ODI match). And the batting team will have the last ten overs to themselves, which turned the games more favorable to the batting team.
IPL 2024 Killing Cricket?
Looking at all this, the countries that once saw cricket as a valuable game and a great healthy fight that stopped wars between nations are now seeing it as just an entertainment. They are just looking at it as a tool reign in money. As a result cricket is losing its value. The value of cricket is falling. If this continues.. there comes a day where we will be seeing machines doing the bowling in international matches.
