"Is anyone ever gonna think about helping the spin bowlers?" - Tabraiz Shamsi on IPL 2024's new bouncer rule
South Africa's left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi recently commented on the new two bouncers in an over rule introduced in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
It is worth mentioning that the International Cricket Council (ICC) allows bowlers to bowl just one bouncer in T20Is. The second bouncer of the over is deemed as a no-ball in the format.
However, last year, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) tried a two-bouncer rule in India's domestic T20 tournament, the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, to maintain a balance between bat and ball.
The BCCI decided to bring the rule to IPL 2024 as well. While the move will benefit fast bowlers, Shamsi suggested that something like this should be done for spinners as well.
Shamsi wrote on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter):
"Is anyone ever gonna think about helping the spin bowlers out too with some sort of rule changes?"
Tabraiz Shamsi entered the IPL 2024 mini-auction with a base price of ₹50 lakh. However, the crafty spinner surprisingly attracted no bids at the event and remained unsold.
Shamsi has performed admirably in white-ball cricket for South Africa and is currently the No. 8 ranked bowler in the ICC T20I rankings. He has played just five IPL games so far in his career.
"Will be use to target certain batter from every team" - Irfan Pathan on IPL 2024's two bouncers rule
Former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan opined that with the introduction of the new two-bouncer rule, teams would look to target some selected opposition batters with short balls.
Even in the opening match of the season between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), a similar plan was used for the likes of Shivam Dube and Cameron Green.
Sharing his take on the new rule, Pathan wrote on X:
"Two bouncers rule will be use to target certain batter from every team…"
Although RCB targetted Shivam Dube with bouncers, the southpaw remained unbeaten on 34 and took his team to a six-wicket win against RCB.