Remember when scoring 200 runs in an innings of a T20 match used to be considered outstanding? Well, times have changed indeed, as cricket fans and general viewers alike are treated to such extravagant innings on the regular now.
The record for the most 200+ scores in an IPL season belonged to the 2023 edition, where a total of 37 such scores were posted across the entire season. And now, a handful of matchdays before the beginning of the playoffs, we have witnessed 35 innings of 200+ scores already in the 2024 season.
What does this say about the game in it’s short-format? Can we expect any change? Well, former Indian batter Sourav Ganguly sure doesn’t think so.
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In an interview with PTI, Ganguly expounded on the seemingly-evolving nature of T20 cricket and reinstated his belief in the fact that such high-scoring encounters will be the way that the shorter format will head towards for years to come.
“This is going to be the trend in the years to come. T20 cricket has become a power-oriented game and that’s what it is going to be. I was reading Sanju Samson’s comments the other day, where he said there’s no time to settle down in modern T20s. You just have to hit, and that’s the way it is going to be,” said Ganguly.
The Indian great also stated that the preparation of wickets which favour batters and the dimensions of the stadiums in Indian especially, upon which the IPL is played on, adds to the ever-growing nature of such high-scoring endeavours.
“Now, in IPL we are seeing scores like 240, 250 regularly. The main reasons are good batting wickets and the grounds are also not big in India. In the last game between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan (Royals), 26 sixes were hit in a 40-over game, which is almost one six every over. That’s how this game has gone and that’s how the players have started approaching the game,” Ganguly expounded.
But, another major factor that has influenced the trend as such has been the introduction of the Impact Player rule.
Introduced as yet another tweaked rendition of the ‘Super Sub’ rule that we cricket fans have witnessed in ODIs, the Impact Player rule in the IPL has made for quite some talk around cricketing circles.
Like it or now, the rule has definitely allowed teams to exploit the use of another marquee batter in situations they couldn’t previously.
The Impact Player rule, where every team has the possibility of adding another batsman, has also added another dimension to it,” Ganguly detailed.
Whilst the promise and deliverance of added entertainment, mostly in the form of increased batting prowess at display, has certainly been met with the introduction of the Impact Player rule, one question still remains: at what cost?
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