5 Reasons Why Cricket has become a Batsman's Game

5 Reasons Why Cricket has become a Batsman’s Game: Cricket’s most traditional and highly revered form of the game is test cricket. The contest between bat and ball has always been even stevens in early days of cricket. Limited overs cricket wasn’t given much importance and most players had test cricket right at the top in their priority list. As they say, change is the only permanent thing, that aptly holds true to what we are discussing now. The scenario changed gradually and eventually the result was a drastic shift in the balance of the even contest between bat and ball. It has become a batsman’s game nowadays due to some reasons that I will be taking you through in this article. Cricket has become a lot more entertaining and fun to watch these days with the emergence of the T20 which has risen to eminence as the most entertaining and unpredictable cricket format. Now let us take a look at 5 Reasons Why Cricket has become a Batsman’s Game. 1. Fearless Batting: Ab De Villiers. (© Getty Images) In older times, batting had more of a conservative approach where the aim was to face more balls and occupy the crease for a long time and score runs at a gentle pace. But in the 21st century with the advent of the T20 cricket, batsmen have started taking risks on a regular basis and have made a mockery of the stonewalling tactics that once was considered to be done only by batsmen of great virtuosity with the bat. Earlier piling up 400 runs as a team was considered an improbable task but now it has become as easy as a regulation task as we have already seen 16 400+ totals. That speaks volumes of how the mindset of the batsmen has changed and how the bowlers are treated with less respect when compared to the bygone days of cricket where they were not willing to take as many risks with the bat. Hence this element the fearlessness in batting is an important reason why cricket has evolved as a batsman’s game. 2. The Indian Premier League: Chris Gayle. (Photo Source: BCCI) The Indian Premier League came into existence in 2008. It is one of the key factors why the present day batsmen have resorted to the hit out or get out mindset. The compressed form of the game is the shortest of all the three and hence batters have to amass as many runs as possible in a matter of just 120 deliveries. The million dollar league showered huge amount of cash on the players and hence players were compelled to prove their worth and as a result they had to whack every ball virtually. There is very little margin of error for the bowlers these days and this new trend of the batsman’s game seems good to continue for a long time. 3. Lack of quality spinners: R Ashwin. (Photo Source: BCCI) There was a man who bowled the ball of the century, there was another man who took all 10 wickets in a test innings and there was still another man who picked up 800 test wickets respectively. Yes I’m talking about the famed trinity of spin that comprised of Warne, Kumble and Muralitharan. Most batsmen dreaded the prospect of facing these three incredible bowlers. But currently, world cricket hasn’t found the replacement of these 3 legends, that’s a prominent reason why I feel that this is a relatively weak era of spin bowling when compared to the golden era of the spin trinity. The lack of top-class spinners has paved the way for the batsmen to unleash the aggressive brand of cricket against the slower bowlers. 4. Dropping wickets: Cricket Pitch. (© Getty Images) The flat and dropping wickets also contribute to the dominance of batters over the bowlers. There seems to be little assistance in the pitches for the bowlers these days when compared to the older times. Even pitches that traditionally favoured bowlers don’t seem to assist them any longer. Take for example, the recent India vs Australia test series. All the experts and commentators were stunned to see such flat wicket. Mathew Hayden said that that was one of the flattest wickets he had seen in Australia. 5. Powerplay fielding restrictions: Cricket Stadium. (Photo Source: Google) The powerplay fielding restrictions were brought in by ICC to make the game faster and more exciting. Only two fielders are allowed outside the thirty-yard circle in the first powerplay and three fielders outside the inner ring in the second batting powerplay. And even while there is no power-play under effect the fielding skipper can opt for maximum 3 fielders outside the ring. These fielding restrictions work as a disadvantage for the bowlers and enables the batsmen to score freely without taking much risks. While it is appreciable that the ICC wants to make cricket more watchable and exciting, it should also consider the fact that cricket is fast evolving into a batsman’s game and the consummate transformation as such is imminent. So in the near future, we hope that the highest governing body ponder over these factors and provide an amicable solution beneficial for both the batsmen and the bowlers and balance out the game to a certain extent.

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5 Reasons Why Cricket has become a Batsman's Game

4. Dropping wickets:

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