The syntax of T20 batting has completely changed recently, according to World Cup-winning former India head coach Rahul Dravid, and bowlers have some “catching up to do.”
Dravid, who led India to its second T20 World Cup victory in the Caribbean in 2024, is amazed at how young players like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre, Priyansh Arya, and the top-ranked T20 batsman in the world, Abhishek Sharma, have completely altered the strategy in the Powerplay overs.
“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,” Dravid told PTI in an exclusive interview from Dublin, where he was unveiled as the owner of European T20 Premier League (ETPL)’s Dublin franchise.
One of India’s most esteemed coaches and former captain gushed about how batters are now hitting boundaries to areas of the field that previously appeared to be out of limits.
“I think batsmanship and the ability to hit sixes and to access different parts of the ground has certainly improved leaps and bounds.
“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,” said Dravid, who has coached IPL teams like Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals.
He did, however, acknowledge without reservation that contemporary batters had better adapted to the demands of the Twenty20 game than bowlers. But Dravid was sure that something would change.
“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 of time. That may change in two or three years,” he added.
However, in Test matches, where bowlers have routinely produced results-oriented games, the situation is rather different.
“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. You know, two-day matches, three-day matches. So, bowlers have started holding the 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.
But if the pitches are as flat as they have been lately, can bowlers turn things around? Dravid concurred that the bowlers require some assistance.
“They may need a little bit of support and I think the way is probably to have a little more challenging wickets to ensure that there are something in it for the bowlers, whether it is the tracks that turn or whether it is a little bit more pace and bounce that give the bowlers a little bit more of a chance. Because I don’t think we can increase the size of the boundaries and already there is no space to go and increase the size of the boundaries,” Dravid put forth his take.
When asked if it would make sense to use two bouncers per over, Dravid declined to elaborate.
“I mean, I think anything that might make it a little bit more — give the bowlers a little bit more of a chance. But I still think that in the next couple of years we may see bowlers bounce back a little bit and start getting a little bit more of a swing.
“There is always this balance and there are times when the bat holds the sway as we are seeing at the moment in white ball cricket and maybe in red ball cricket we are seeing the ball hold the sway a little bit.”
Dravid does not, however, want the game to be overly biased in favor of bowlers or batsmen.
“I think at some stage we don’t want the balance to be too skewed either way, either on the side of the batsmen or the side of the bowlers,” he said.
