Sunil Gavaskar feels that T20 is not just about power hitting

This season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has proved that the shortest format of the game is not just about big-hitters. While the greatest hitter Chris Gayle has been benched, players like Hashim Amla, who was for long called a Test specialist, are hogging the limelight and proving that old-school batting is also very important in the T20 format.

South Africa’s Hashim Amla has been racking up giant totals with his old school batting. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson another conventional batsman who has little flamboyance in his game and the shots he plays is also proving that there’s more to Twenty20 than just hitting big shots.

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar stated that though they aren’t the big names in T20 cricket but have played effective shots and got the runs. “T20 is not about sixes… T20 is about making sure that there are no dot balls [deliveries on which no run is scored] and both these batsmen have made sure that there are very few dot balls,” Sunil Gavaskar told AFP.

“Playing the ball according to its merit and keep the scoreboard ticking is the key. That’s how they have been more successful this year,”

He also said that when you closely observe T20s, it can be seen that more fours are scored over sixes, and it is safer to do that because you can hit a four along the ground and not risk yourself a catch in the air.

“You look at the entire T20 game and you will see that any time there will be more boundaries than sixes. And you can hit the boundaries along the ground, you can hit them one bounce into the fence,” Gavaskar added.

For the Punjab outfit, Amla has amassed 315 runs in eight matches including a maiden T20 century — one of four tons to have been hit so far in the tenth edition of the IPL. He has hit 12 sixes and 32 fours at a strike-rate of 140.

Williamson, on the other hand, has accumulated 228 runs in 5 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad including a match-winning knock of 89 against Delhi Daredevils. He has hit 17 fours and nine sixes.