Highlights:
The modern day cricket favours the batsman aspect over bowlers.
The boundary traces are smaller than they had been once 20 years back.
The limited-over cricket is greater entertainment than the classic 5-day test fits.
Evolution of “Day and Night Cricket” to defend the well-known tournaments like “ashes series” or Rivalry like Australia Vs South Africa or India Vs Pakistan.
With the very first test played among the Ashes Rivals Australia and England in 1877, the gentleman game has witnessed enormous transformation. With new formats, rules and policies and players have used new techniques and with the advancement of modern technology this game of epic greatness has been transformed completely into a different level.
With change is a law of nature and in the past two decades many changes have been brought into cricket and it has attracted huge fans around the world.
Take a look back at five revolution which has changed the game of cricket and keep the audience on the edge of their seats:
Decision review system (DRS):
As a die hard cricket enthusiast, I have always felt bad for the players who were given out and not out when there was a clear perception of that opposite decision. But then back in 2008, the match between India and Sri Lanka we witnessed the new innovation of modern day cricket i.e, was the “DRS”. As cricket is getting advanced day by day the idea of DRS is a perfect choice for bowlers in modern day cricket which seems to be a batsman game now. Boundary lines are very small in modern day cricket as compared to the cricket of 1980s or 1990s. In this modern game of cricket bowlers have the no option to dominate the batsman with those trunks size bats and have the restriction to bowl limited overs in ODIs and T-20 Cricket. This idea of “DRS” with its modern techniques gives you the most accurate decision.
Super sub or Substitute:
Super Sub if you remember started in 2005 by ICC but not go past 60 games. Suresh Raina was part of it many times during the early days of his career. Although the move was good but it was implemented properly and was questioned to stop it permanently. We have seen these types of rules in football only in which you're allowed to make changes in between the match to replace some specific player due to injury or any other reason.
In this concept the captains of the both have to name one player who can be used a super sub during the match but they can't pick the player from playing eleven. Captains have to decide before the toss and team mostly pick alternative batsmen and bowler as a X factor.
But a team with winning the toss has advantage over the opposition team in a clear picture. So the rule ended in 2006 and with the current situation of less viewership it is interesting if ICC comes out with such a rule like teams have to decide the super sub after the toss. Not only it will provide a chance to talented cricketers but it will also attract the audience to see more players playing for their country.
Reverse hits and switch hits:
Moving to the next thing in the list talking about modern technologies, new set of rules and regulation. Over the span of years and in the last two decades players have defined the word called Evolution on cricket through the unorthodox hitting out of the park or sometimes straight down the ground. Cricket is more of a gentleman's game with some typical straight driver or Cover drives that stunned the audience but with every year there is some new thing in cricket and in the recent few years we have witnessed reverse hits and switch hits which has gained much ovation from fans around the world. The very first time the reverse hits was used by Andy Flower in 1999 and in the early years of 2000. Andy Flower had used it amazing extent with his full flow of batting. Along with the shortest format of game or tournament like Cash-rich league these unorthodox hitting has gained huge recognition among players. With modern size bats players like David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Josh Phillippe, Alex Carey and David Miller have used the reverse hits quite perfectly at the international level.
Idea of Fast Cricket – T-20 Cricket:
The biggest revolution in cricket in the last two decades is T-20 Cricket. Not just a very old format of a game it has been just 14 years ago when it was started in South Africa with its inaugural season and has gained huge recognition in the past few years. Out of 6 tournaments in T-20 Cricket history. There were five times a different winner which clearly defines it not rule by any particular team like in the other formats of the game.
3-hour cricket with 20 overs for each team and team who has performed good throughout the game will emerge as a winner, not the longest format of game or even 50 over game where the team has the chance to make a comeback into the game and put his team into the driver seat.
With so much popularity among cricketers and boards every test playing nation has started their T-20 tournaments. With the idea of fast cricket the technique and temperament of players have changed in the other format of game like Tests or One-day Cricket. Batsman scoring 180 or above are common in one-day cricket Whereas the team scoring 400 plus more often in back to back games.
With the same mind set players play test cricket and smash centuries in a session which was at once took two or three sessions in a day.
Looking at the mindset of players in the format of the game this idea of fast cricket is more entertaining for crowds these days or even in the coming years of cricket.
Day-night Test cricket:
At last, the most important format of cricket test cricket. To protect and save the existence of test cricket the board of cricket come with the idea of day and night cricket to the play under the lights with the pink ball. This new form of cricket was started in 2015 by ICC.
Considering then, total of 14 day and night matches have been played under floodlights. Australia has played most number of day and night matches 5 matches under flood lights and most successful side in this new form of cricket. The west indies cricket is the worst having lost all their matches in day and night cricket. While towards the end of this year Australia will play day and night match against Afghanistan at Perth between 21st to 25th November 2020. Another match Australia will play against India under flood lights between 11th to 15th December 2020 at Adelaide, Oval.
The idea behind this move from the board of cricket is very clear to attract more audience in the longest format of cricket which these days after revolution of T-20 Cricket has been reduced. In a era of crazy cricket rules and formats it is definitely a smart move from the boards to save the existence of test cricket.
