"Sachin Tendulkar's runs and centuries would have been doubled" - Sanath Jayasuriya wants rules modified for ODI cricket
Former Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya agrees with former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis' suggestion on how to use new balls in ODI cricket. Waqar recently came up with an innovative idea to the ICC in order to limit the dominance of batters over bowlers, suggesting that one of the two balls should be taken away after 30 overs.
Waqar was arguably one of the finest exponents of reverse swing the world has ever seen. However, the art has become a lot less prominent in recent years.
With the 50-over format now having two new balls, each ball gets 25 overs old at the end of the innings. That, according to Waqar, is not enough to produce reverse swing.
Here's what Waqar Younis had written in a post on X:
"ODI cricket is too friendly for batters. Suggestion (to) ICC - 2 new balls to start, take away 1 ball after 30 overs, continue with the other. At the end that ball will only be 35 overs old. We’ll see some reverse at the end. Save the art of #ReverseSwing. Comments please."
Sanath Jayasuriya has now endorsed Waqar Younis' idea, saying that had Sachin Tendulkar batted in the modern era, he would have had double the number of runs and hundreds in ODIs.
Jayasuriya wrote on X:
"I agree with Waqar Younis some changes have to be made. If Sachin Tendulkar had the privilege to bat with two balls and under the current power play rules in our era, his runs and centuries would have doubled."
Mitchell Starc also believes ODIs should have one ball
Star Australian pacer Mitchell Starc also reckons that one-day cricket needs to have just one ball in use. With the smaller boundary dimensions and flatter pitches, Starc feels the older ball would have something for the bowlers.
Speaking to reporters ahead of Australia's semifinal against South Africa, Starc stated:
"I still think it should be one ball not two. The ball stays harder for longer. As we've seen here, the grounds are quite small, wickets are flat. If anything in world cricket wickets have gotten flatter and I think if you look at some of that old footage when they bowled with one ball, reverse swing comes into it a lot more."
Only time will tell whether the ICC will amend its rules and impact the future of one-day cricket.