Dubai: Former Australia leg-spinner and current Rajasthan Royals mentor Shane Warne suggested three major changes to make T20 cricket better and more competitive between bat and ball.
Warne suggested to increase the boundary size and if not keep grass on the outfield. Taking to Twitter the Warne wrote, “I would improve T/20 cricket by 1 boundary as big as poss at each venue & on small grounds keep grass on the outfield long,” wrote Warne.
In his second suggestion, Warne said two bowlers should be allowed to bowl five overs instead of four in T20s. And finally, he wanted the pitches to be similar like a fourth day Test match track.“2 Bowlers a max of 5 overs not four3 Pitch must day 4 test match pitch & not be a flat rd As we all want a contest between bat & ball not just 6’s,” Warne wrote.
Warne also tagged many former cricketers including Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Stephen Fleming, Mark Waugh, Mel Jones, and Isa Guha. “Like it Warnster the only thing you forgot which I’ve been saying for a while is get rid of leg byes. It’s should be a dead ball instead. Don’t reward the batting team for missing the ball.? “Was Mark Waugh’s reply.
Warne’s remarks came at a crucial time as the shortest format of the cricket is becoming more of a batsmen game. In the 13 matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) so far, the pitches have favoured batsmen more than bowlers. Bowlers have found it difficult to take wickets as they were smashed all around the park due to the smaller grounds in the UAE, especially in Sharjah.
The teams have comfortably chased the 200-run total on two occasions thanks to the smaller boundaries and field restrictions in the first six overs. The dew added the extra pressure for spinners to grip the ball in the second innings of the ongoing tournament. As a result, most of the teams have so far opted to field first in the competition. Earlier, Warne had said that bowlers are playing with a defensive mindset rather than an attacking frame of mind.
“Batsmen are getting better and have been awesome yes but the bowling really needs to improve at the same rate! The mindset is defence and not attack. Sure, these tiny boundaries don’t help – but they can still get better at executing their skills,” Warne had tweeted.
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