At last, with 19 days left for the conclusion of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL), has the balance between bat and ball been restored? Not too long ago, Mumbai Indians’ total of 243 wasn’t enough as Sunrisers Hyderabad chased it down, but last evening’s humdinger between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and MI finally proved that not all matches need to be high-scoring to turn into thrillers. Sometimes, the old-school 160-plus contests can generate equal adrenaline.
With so many bowlers taking a beating, Sunil Gavaskar has come up with an interesting suggestion for the BCCI to restore the balance between bat and ball. With more leagues drifting towards batting-friendly pitches, the former India captain has urged the implementation of a rule that promises to be a value addition for bowlers – a fifth over as a reward for an outstanding four-over spell.
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“The restriction of only four overs to a bowler could be looked at again. If a batter can bat the entire 20 overs, why can’t a bowler who gets, say, three wickets in his four overs be allowed to bowl another over as a reward for getting those wickets? This way teams will also try getting wickets instead of trying only to save runs being scored. After all, the best dot ball is the wicket-taking dot ball, isn’t it? Yes, you could conceivably have three bowlers getting three wickets and an extra over each,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for mid-day.
“That would even up the playing field a fair bit in a format where just about everything is stacked against the bowlers. Look at the small boundaries, the strict interpretation of the wide for a bouncer going marginally over the batter’s head and such like. So, giving the bowlers and the fielding captain an incentive to take wickets and not just be defensive from the first ball, would be something worth trying out.”
Insane stats
This year’s IPL has produced 46 200-plus totals, the most in a single edition of the tournament. Out of these, SRH have scored the most (8). At least one team has crossed 200 a stunning 26 times, while 20 matches have seen both teams breach the 200-run mark. Clearly, sixes and fours are the flavour of the season, but Gavaskar feels it wouldn’t be a bad idea to start trialling the one-over bonus at the grassroots level, test it, and then introduce it in next year’s IPL.
“As with every new playing condition, it can be trialled in the many city leagues that are coming up. Then, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and then, if found that it does level a format which is more batting friendly then it could be used in the next year’s IPL or maybe in the next cycle of IPL starting from 2028,” added the batting legend.