New Delhi: On Wednesday night, Mohammed Shami kept it simple. No tricks, no overthinking, no out-of-the-box variations—just classic Test-match lengths. In his first over against the Rajasthan Royals, he angled one in and let it seam away late, drawing the edge of Dhruv Jurel, neatly taken by Rishabh Pant.
It served as a reminder that in a format constantly chasing the next variation, a few bowlers are still betting on something far less fashionable but effective. Yorkers, slower deliveries, spinners bowling bouncers, and wide lines outside off to take the arc away may all be necessary in the IPL but those who don’t follow the script still stand out. When you watch Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood or Shami bowl, there’s a certain stubbornness to it.
The line often hovers around that fourth stump channel, the length doesn’t swing wildly between yorker and bumper.
Lungi Ngidi, when reflecting on his very effective slower ball spoke about the necessity of having variations in his arsenal while still relying on good Test-match lengths.
“Those will never leave the game, that’s what I have seen over the years. Variations help when you’re under pressure, they give you something different but the basics of cricket stay,” the Delhi Capitals pacer said in a virtual media interaction.
“That’s where I believe Test cricket has helped me in terms of other formats. Yes, you can bowl variations, but I still know how to hit the top of off stump and when I need to bowl my stock delivery and that comes from just repetitions of hard lengths.”
According to data by CricViz, the good length isn’t quite what it used to be. It’s not enough. It still gives control — dots, quiet and perhaps, testing overs — but it’s not dictating terms the way it once did. Batters are finding ways to score and disrupt rhythm without taking obvious risks.
It still has the highest dot-ball percentage in both the ongoing season (40%) and in IPL 2025 (39%) but the yorker still leads the balls-per-wicket column.
However, Josh Hazlewood sits right in the middle of it. He still is heavily reliant on the channel, built on control, but with some modern edge – a harder length, a bit more bounce.
After his player of the match performance against Lucknow Super Giants, where he picked 1/20, Hazlewood revealed his bowling psyche in the format. “Wicket was slow and up and down, so I just had to whack away that length and get the result.”
“I’d like to have a few funky deliveries, but as a Test bowler, it’s quite hard to bowl good slower balls, always working on them. You always got to keep that into the armoury and keep moving forward.”
In a format built on variation, the bowlers who rely on doing the same thing again and again aren’t being conservative. If anything, they’re going slightly against the grain — backing skill over disruption, patience over change.
Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood, who have essentially been the best examples of relying on the good old Test match length bowling even in the shortest format, rely on the good length delivery the most. It seems to have worked well for Royal Challengers Bengaluru who have delivered some memorable bowling performances with the new ball.
Chennai Super Kings’ pacer Anshul Kamboj and Lucknow Super Giants’ Prince Yadav are the current leading wicket-takers with 13 wickets each. Kamboj’s most preferred lengths were full (28%) or the yorker and good length (both 20%). Yadav, meanwhile, also relies on the good length the most (25%) compared to the yorker or full length (both 12%).
“Last year, we saw Hazlewood bowl so well. He usually goes for the Test length. Our coach (Munaf Patel) has also urged us to stick to our strengths,” said Delhi pacer Mukesh Kumar. “If he is hitting you for runs when you bowl the Test match length, that’s okay. But still, hitting those lengths for runs is still very difficult.”
“Batters want to swing their bats, when it seams or swings a little bit, it makes it difficult. My aim has been to bowl the Test match length at the start with the new ball. Runs are tough to leak when you bowl like that.”
Teams continue to stress taking wickets upfront and the overall numbers reveal the real story when you split it by an innings phase. During the Powerplay, it is effectively red-ball discipline entering the shortest format, as bowlers like Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar and Ngidi all opt for top-of-off, back-of-a-length deliveries, asking batters to manufacture scoring options rather than offering them.
In the middle overs, the bowlers begin to change their lengths. By the death overs, the shift is complete. They move decisively away from Test lengths and yorkers and full usage rises sharply. While yorkers and full execution remain indispensable in other phases of the innings, Test-match lengths are reshaping the first half of a T20 innings, where control and pressure matter most.
And in a format where variations, innovations continue to seep in every other match, when a bowlers trust uses the old-school strengths to build that pressure – from Shami’s new ball spell against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday, Hazlewood’s spell against Lucknow Super Giants or Bhuvneshwar’s spells against Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals – it’s still a sight to behold.