In the last 10 years, One Day Internationals (ODIs) has seen a massive shift towards batting. It’s very difficult for bowlers to sustain in ODI cricket. Team India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin expressed his opinion on the balance in ODI cricket. Ashwin wants ICC to bring some changes to make ODI cricket interesting.
The Tamil Nadu-born spinner feels that ODI cricket currently is tilted towards batsmen. Ashwin believes that ODI cricket has also become boring to watch. They don’t get any sort of help from the wickets, especially the spinners due to the rules of two new balls.
“Even me, as a cricket badger and a cricket nut, I switch off the TV after a point and that’s frankly very scary for the format of the game. When those ebbs and flows go missing, it’s not cricket anymore. It’s just an extended form of T20. It’s a question of relevance and I think ODI cricket needs to find its spot,” Ashwin said to Telegraph.
Ashwin further gave the suggestion that one ball rule might bring the balance in ODI cricket as it was till 2011. The veteran spinner said, “I think one ball is something that would work and spinners would come into the game to bowl more at the back end. Reverse swing might come back in, which is crucial for the game.”
“Bowlers had a lot of say in ODIs earlier” – Ravichandran Ashwin
Ravichandran Ashwin feels that the two new ball rules completely changed the dynamics of ODI cricket. He also asserted that bowlers don’t get swing in initial overs and neither there is help for spinners.
“The greatest beauty of one-day cricket is – sorry, was – the ebbs and flows of the game. People used to bide their time and take the game deep. The one-day format used to be a format where bowlers had a say,” he concluded.
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