5 ways the IPL has changed the way cricket is played

2. Bowling variations

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Just as batsmen are trying to get better with their techniques, bowlers are also secretly adding slight variations to their bowling. When T20 cricket was introduced, fans and cricket pundits alike thought that it would spell the end for bowlers.

However in 2018, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Back in the day, we got to witness bowlers like Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, Shaun Tait, Wasim Akram and others run in and bowl as fast as they can. It’s clear that they were all wicket-taking bowlers, but as batsmen started to modify their techniques, bowlers needed to come up with different variations instead of the usual swinging deliveries.

This gave rise to new deliveries like back of the hand slower ball, carrom ball, knuckle ball, wide yorker etc. Today, we can see bowlers remove pace off the ball in an attempt to deceive batsmen into playing their short early. If done correctly, this can lead to the downfall of a entire batting order.

Looking at the IPL in recent years, we have seen teams with a good bowling lineup (like Sunrisers Hyderabad) perform extremely well. There is now a heavy demand for seamers who can vary their pace so much so that one-dimensional fast bowlers are now a thing of the past.

Bowlers are trying to be as unpredictable as possible and those that succeed are able deliver standout performances for their team in crunch situations.