Sunil Gavaskar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Image Agency) Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has suggested major improvements to the playing conditions of the IPL, suggesting that bowlers who take a certain number of wickets in their spell should be rewarded with an extra over.In his column for Mid Day, Gavaskar argued that modern T20 cricket, particularly the IPL, is increasingly tilting in favor of batsmen due to flat pitches, shorter boundaries and regulations that leave bowlers with very little margin for error. According to him, allowing bowlers with an extra wicket could restore some balance between bat and ball.
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“This is where one feels the restriction of just four overs per bowler could be revisited,” Gavaskar wrote. “If a batsman can bowl the full 20 overs, why shouldn’t a bowler who takes, say, three wickets in his four overs be allowed to bowl another as a reward for taking those wickets?”Gavaskar believes that such a rule would encourage attacking cricket from bowling sides rather than defensive strategies aimed only at restricting runs. He added: “This way the teams will also try to take wickets instead of just trying to save the runs scored. After all, the best dot is the dot that takes the wicket, isn’t it?”The former India captain pointed to the growing number of centuries and massive totals in IPL 2026 as evidence that the conditions strongly favor the batsmen. While praising the fun competitions, he said tighter games on more challenging surfaces are much more exciting than one-sided races. In particular, he highlighted how batsmen struggled on livelier pitches against true bowlers like Jofra Archer and Kagiso Rabada.To explain how the proposed rule could work, Gavaskar referred to Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s recent spell against Mumbai Indians, where the veteran pacer took four wickets. Under the proposed rule, a bowler producing such a performance could potentially bowl the bowler at the death, rewarding the fielding side for attacking bowling.“Yes, one can imagine three bowlers getting three wickets and an over each. That would level the playing field quite a bit in a format where almost everything is stacked against the bowlers,” Gavaskar added.He also criticized certain conditions suitable for batting in the modern game, including small boundaries and strict wide-angle interpretations for deliveries with short pitches above shoulder height.Rather than introducing the rule directly into the IPL, Gavaskar suggested that the concept should first be tested in domestic competitions such as city leagues and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy before a wider implementation is considered.
