The Indian Premier League and the T20 format in general is batsman-driven. There have been games with bowlers ruling the roost but the flurry of big hits often blur the magic of seam and spin.
Renowned cricket coach John Buchanan, who was associated with Kolkata Knight Riders in the first two editions of the IPL, pointed out the reason why batsmen hog all the limelight in Sportstar Extras IPL Special show.
“I think these days, the IPL really rewards batsmen who can play 360 degrees on the field and have the ability with the ball maybe. But then batting has an advantage over bowling because there is so much batting practice,” said the 67-year-old, who won two World Cups with the Australian cricket team.
Buchanan feels the batsmen get more time at the nets than bowlers which constantly sharpens their game. “The guys face the fast bowlers at the nets, throwdowns from coaches and then, in front of the bowling machine.
“They are constantly practising their game but the bowlers have a restricted amount of bowling, if they can do, throughout the course of the tournament and therefore, less accurate skill-wise to deliver on the decisions they make, which again gives advantage to batting,” said Buchanan, who is excited to watch Virat Kohli bat in the United Arab Emirates. “He [Kohli] hasn’t played there that much. Even K.L. Rahul could do well and then, you have David Warner.”
Among the bowlers, he picked Jasprit Bumrah and Deepak Chahar. “He [Chahar] picked up 22 wickets at 7.47 and was only second to Malinga in terms of strike-rate,” said Buchanan.
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