‘What about four bowlers bowl five overs?’ - Shane Warne's solution to having an even contest in T20 cricket
Australian legend Shane Warne has come up with a unique idea to level the playing field for both batsmen and bowlers in T20 cricket. The former leg-spinner wants bowlers be allowed to bowl five overs each in an innings, instead of the current quota of four.
Warne believes this change will make for a fair contest between bat and ball in a format that is heavily tilted in the batsmen’s favour and is known for huge sixes and massive totals.
“What about four bowlers bowl five overs? I just think it’ll make for a better contest between bat and ball. You want your best bowlers bowling as much as you can as T20 is so much in the batsmen’s favour. When you get a couple of gun bowlers like this [Archer and Wood], you want to give them another over up front,” Warne said on Sky Sports Cricket while calling the second T20I between England and Australia.
T20 cricket allows one bowler to bowl maximum four overs per innings
The current T20 rules allow each bowler to bowl a maximum of four overs in an innings, while there is no upper limit on the number of bowlers who can bowl during that particular essay.
“Wouldn’t be nice to give them five? You can obviously have eight bowlers bowl whatever but I would like to see bowlers be able to bowl five. [Adil] Rashid could bowl five overs in the middle which would be a real good battle for the batsmen against spin, while you can bowl your quicks at the beginning and at the end.
I reckon it gets rid of the bits-and-pieces and you can pick your best batsmen and best bowlers when selecting your team,” Warne, who is Test cricket’s second highest wicket-taker with 708 wickets, added.
Warne’s suggestion makes sense because it will not only give captains more confidence in terms of not leaking too many runs, but it will also empower them to pick more specialised batsmen to get runs on the board.