Daren Sammy reflects on batters dominating T20 cricket ahead of World Cup

The ongoing IPL (Indian Premier League) 2024 has seen many performances that have stood out in the tournament so far. The record for the highest total scored in an innings, which was previously occupied by Royal Challengers Bengaluru (263), has been broken several times by Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad.  

With the tournament and the format increasingly becoming batter-dominated, the West Indies’ head coach, Daren Sammy, came forward to express his concern about bowlers not getting any help from the surface and how even the score of 300 runs looks attainable.

Furthermore, Sammy also opined that the same batting carnage can be expected from the players in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024.

"Bowlers have been under the pump. It's not just the young bowlers, every single international bowler has been under pressure. Look at the IPL right now. Teams are scoring 200 and it’s not a safe total. It tells you that the batters are really dominating T20 cricket now,” Sammy was quoted as saying by Onmanorama. 

“The difference will be some X-factor bowlers. Whether that’s pace, whether that’s mystery spin - you’d need that in your armoury in order to defend totals or restrict opponents,” he added.

Genuine pace will always create doubts in the batsman’s mind: Sammy

Furthermore, Daren Sammy reflected on the importance of former Sri Lanka pacer Lasith Malinga in Sri Lanka’s 2014 T20 World Cup campaign. He opined that no matter what, genuine pace will always cause trouble for the batters, regardless of the pitch. 

“Whether the wicket is spin-friendly or seam-friendly, genuine pace will always create doubts in the batsman’s mind. To have that in your armoury is always a plus,” Sammy said. 

“Obviously I’d love to have the ‘X-factor’ that I had in 2012 and 2016, when I had two bowlers ranked among the top five. We don’t have that now. What we do have is Akeal Hosein, who’s ranked number three. We also have (Gudakesh) Motie, who’s very effective in the middle overs,” he added.