New PowerPlay rule in ODI : What to expect?

ICC, the International cricket governing body, re-engineered some of the rules and regulations of One Day Internationals, which were first implemented in the match between India and Pakistan on 30^th December 2012.

What is this new PowerPlay rule?

As previously, only 2 fielders will be allowed outside the 30 yard circles in the first 10 overs, which is the mandatory power play. According to revised clauses of ICC, there will be only 2 PowerPlays, one each for the bowling and batting sides. First bowling PowerPlay is mandatory at the start of each innings for 10 overs, whereas the second PowerPlay has to be taken before the 40^th over. Most important point about the restriction free zone is that the bowling team can have only 4 players outside the 30 yard box, instead of 5.

With the complex rules, we can expect the following things:

1) One thing for sure is that bowlers will have to work hard. Days are not far when 6 or 7 runs per over will be considered good economic bowling. The trade-off between wickets to runs would be assessed closely in choosing the playing eleven. Traditionally, bowlers were considered as wicket takers, whereas now, the whole concept would change to economic bowlers. It is also important to note that 2 bouncers will be allowed per over according to the new guidelines.

2) Regulations will have a depressing impact on the existence of genuine orthodox spinners, who would find it hard to breathe, given a shorter span of unrestricted field setting. Gone are the days when you would see spinners bowling 3-4 flighted deliveries in an over. Spinners would have to bowl much flatter, reluctantly. Only 4 players outside the 30 yard circle would make it really make the spinners’ fingers stiffer to toss the ball, unless you have variations like ‘doosra’, ‘carom ball’ or ‘teesra’. In other words, we would see the likes of Ashwin, Ojha , Harbhajan getting into the shell of defensiveness, rather than attacking the pitch.

3) Befuddling PowerPlay rules would make sure that teams comes into play with five specialist bowlers. Going with part time bowlers can really make the situations incorrigible in the death overs. Teams like India, who rely heavily on part timers, would have to assess their status quo. It’s the right time for India to decide the roles of some players like Ravindra Jadeja, who are borderline batsmen and bowlers.

4) There’s no doubt that it will be raining gold for the batsmen. 5 players inside the box will give free license to batsmen to have a go at the bowlers. We could see many players getting past 200 easily, given more unprotected boundaries. On the other hand, batsmen would have to make sure that they don’t give away the wickets cheaply when in the mood of slogging. Players like Saurav Ganguly and Inzamam Ul Haq would have loved this rule, as one doesn’t need to run much, in comparison with older rules. Nevertheless, the point is, it would be hard to steal singles, and the situation can turn quickly against the batting side if they are not able to get runs swiftly.

5) Ground size will be an important parameter. Consider grounds of New Zealand, which have 60-70 yards of outfield boundary, and where 350+ runs won’t be a big target to chase under these new rules. In big grounds such as Australia’s , a lot will depend on the 4 fielders outside the 30 yard circle, who would have to work their socks off to cover most of the ground. So teams with good young fielders will have a slightly upper hand in such situations. In India, grounds like Ahmedabad and Bangalore would see 300+ run totals quite often, with their flat surface. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that ODIs will eventually be seen as T20 by the players.