Former India cricketer and head coach Rahul Dravid believes that the organisers should focus on producing more bowler-friendly wickets to bring back balance in modern-day T20 cricket, which is clearly a batting-dominated sport at the moment, with batters like Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Priyansh Arya and Ayush Mhatre adopting a fearless approach.
Saying that the batters have revolutionised the way cricket is played, especially in the shortest format of the game, Dravid believes that the bowlers have to develop themselves into becoming so good that they are able to counter the skill set possessed by batters.
“In a sense, to see the quality of batting that has happened over the last two or three years, I think the bowlers in that format of the game will slowly have to do some catching up. I think batsmanship and the ability to hit sixes and to access different parts of the ground has certainly improved leaps and bounds,” Dravid was quoted as saying by India Today.
“Bowlers will have to keep working on their skills and keep developing. I am sure some of them will be able to still stand out and hold their own. I think if you look at it in terms of balance, probably a lot more batsmen are able to cope with the requirements of the modern T20 game than, say, some of the bowlers have been able to at this point in time. That may change in two or three years,” he added.
Nearly every Test match is producing a result: Dravid
Dravid, a prodigy of red-ball cricket during his active international days, has put forward his analytical opinion on the changing form of Test matches of late. Earlier, producing results would mean toiling hard over four to five days and earning the win, but now, matches do not last as long, and the results have become eminent, the Indore-born believes. IPL and T20 cricket have undoubtedly played a huge part in it.
“I mean, if you look at Test cricket today, nearly every Test match produces a result. So, I think bowlers are probably holding the sway in some of the Test matches that we are seeing – two-day matches, three-day matches. So, bowlers have started holding sway in Test cricket. So, it will be interesting to see over the next couple of years if bowlers are able to pull this back a little bit in T20s,” Dravid said further.
