T20 World Cup-winning former India head coach Rahul Dravid has backed the need for more bowler-friendly pitches in T20 cricket, saying the format risks becoming too heavily tilted in favour of batters if conditions remain excessively flat.
Dravid, who was unveiled as the owner of a franchise in the European T20 Premier League, said the grammar of T20 batting has undergone a “complete metamorphosis” in recent years and bowlers now have serious “catching up to do.”
Dravid, who guided India to its second T20 World Cup title in 2024 in the Caribbean, pointed to the fearless approach of young Indian batters such as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre and Priyansh Arya, along with world No.1 T20 batter Abhishek Sharma, as examples of how Powerplay batting has been transformed.
“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.
The former India captain also praised the dramatic improvement in range-hitting and innovation among modern-day batters.
“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 also coached IPL teams Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals.
While expressing confidence that bowlers will eventually evolve and respond tactically, Dravid admitted that the current balance in T20 cricket is heavily tilted towards batters.
“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.
Dravid also contrasted the current state of T20 cricket with Test cricket, where bowlers have recently dominated proceedings and produced a series of result-oriented matches.
“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.
However, the former India coach acknowledged that bowlers in T20 cricket may require assistance from playing conditions if they are to restore balance in the shortest format.
“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 said.
Asked whether allowing two bouncers per over could help bowlers regain some control, Dravid avoided advocating specific rule changes but reiterated the importance of ensuring the format does not become excessively one-sided.
“I mean, I think anything that might make it a little bit moregive 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 signed off by stressing that cricket should never become overly dominated by either batters or bowlers.
“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.
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