Is it a fact that T-20 Cricket has improved the area of Bowling?
On the positive side, Bowlers are more innovative. Knuckle Balls, Cross Seam Deliveries, Slow Bouncers, Doosras and more use of Yorkers have been added to the arsenal of many bowlers. Some of them transfer these skills to Test Cricket and ODI, and has reaped rich dividends. Jasprit Bumrah is a classic example. T-20 has also given a fresh lease of life to the Wrist Spinners, both Right and Left Arms. Bowlers are careful about bowling no balls, and with harsh wide rules in place, the overall accuracy has improved. Rarely do we see bizarre wides, like the one R P Singh bowled first up on being recalled in England, being bowled in Test Cricket these days.
However, the negatives are far too many. T-20 do not encourage genuine quicks. With batsmen swinging at everything, especially in the first Power Play, and with field restrictions in place, the faster you bowl, the faster the ball will travel to the boundary. This has forced many a genuine quick to sacrifice pace for accuracy, which is a pity.
The bits and pieces cricketers, who ruined ODI for quite a long time (One of the reasons England never won a ODI World Cup), who bowl at 130's accurately, stump to stump is more preferred that a talented genuine quick or swing bowler. T-20 is slowly killing the Swing and Seam Bowlers. Most of the pitches are roads, and bowler cannot expect any assistance from the pitch. In addition, the boundaries are so short, when the bowler induces a mis-hit from the batsman, more often than not the ball clears the fence. This has to do with the quality improvements in bats.
Only the wrist spinner has a role in today's T-20. Genuine traditional off spinners are not fielded for fear of being cross batted out of the ground. No spinner will dare to toss the ball up, since boundaries are only 60 metres at best. The art of using the flight and drift is history. There are rare exceptions like Kuldeep Yadav, but he is a class apart.
Wicket taking is a secondary objective, with containment the main one. When it comes to Test Cricket, most modern bowlers have forgotten how to plan, work out the batsmen and take his wicket.
With even good balls being tonked around for sixes, bowlers get disheartened and stops innovating. They are seen more as a fodder for the batsmen.
Finally, with bowlers being allowed only 4 overs per innings, and that too they dont bowl at a stretch, any decent spell is limited to 2 overs at best. The fitness required is to bowl 2 intense overs, and not a 7-8 over spell which requires more stamina. We see more bowlers breaking down at Test level precisely because of this. When you have a 7-8 over spell, you can work on a batsman's weakness, persist with a strategy and get immense satisfaction when you get his wicket. You can have a bad spell in Test Cricket, but have the time to rethink, come back and redeem yourself. This is not possible in T-20.
I would call for more sportive pitches, which gives something to the bowler is a must. I would like to see a 125-135 score with an even contest between bat and ball, than a mindless 200 plus total. The boundary ropes have to be pulled back to at least 80 yards, if not 90. This shall make it difficult for batsmen to get away with mishits. It will also bring back the off spinner into the game, and encourage the spinners to flight more. The absurd leg side wide rule has to go. Batsmen are so innovative today that they are quite capable of handling a ball going down the leg side. We can have the leg side wide defined as one going beyond a further 3 stumps after the leg stump. This should be fair and discourage negative bowling.
Batsmen take too much risk because all the 11 can bat, and it is impossible for the team to be All out in 120 balls (though it does happen occasionally). Just as a bowler is allowed to bowl only 4 overs, the batting team should be allowed to use only 6 batsmen, and Team would deem to have been all out if 5 wickets fall. This should make the batsman think a bit more and not take suicidal risks, as is happening now. The top 6 batsmen should be able to last 20 overs.
