India’s former T20 World Cup-winning head coach Rahul Dravid has backed the need for more bowlers in T20 cricket, saying the format risks being too tilted in favor of batsmen if conditions remain too flat.
Dravid, who was unveiled as a franchise owner in Europe’s T20 Premier League, said the grammar of T20 batting has undergone a “complete metamorphosis” in recent years and the bowlers now have serious “catch up”.
Dravid to lead India to their second T20 World Cup title in 2024 in the Caribbean, pointed to the fearless approach of young Indian batsmen such as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre and Priyansh Arya, along with T20 world number one Abhishek Sharma, as examples of how Powerplay batting has transformed.
“In a sense, to see the quality of batting that has happened in the last two or three years, I think the bowlers in this format of the game will have to catch up slowly,” Dravid told PTI.
The former Indian captain also praised the dramatic improvement in range and innovation among modern batsmen.
“I think the batting skill and the ability to hit sixes and get access to different parts of the ground has definitely improved by leaps and bounds.
“The bowlers will have to keep working on their skills and develop further. I’m sure some of them will still be able to excel and hold their own,” said Dravid, who has also coached IPL teams Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals.
Expressing confidence that the bowlers will eventually evolve and respond tactically, Dravid admitted that the current balance in T20 cricket is heavily tilted towards the batsmen.
“I think if you look at it from a balance point of view, probably a lot more batsmen are able to cope with the demands of the modern T20 game than, say, some of the bowlers at the moment. That may change in two or three years’ time,” he added.
Dravid also compared the current state of T20 cricket with Test cricket, where bowlers have dominated proceedings in recent times and created a series of result-oriented matches.
“I mean, if you look at Test cricket today, almost every Test match produces a result. So I think the bowlers probably hold the reigns in some of the Test matches that we see.”
“You know, two-day matches, three-day matches. So bowlers started to hold sway in Test cricket.”
“It will be interesting to see over the next couple of years if the bowlers can push this back a bit in T20s,” Dravid said.
However, the former India coach acknowledged that bowlers in T20 cricket may require help from the playing conditions if they are to restore balance in the shortest format.
“Maybe they need a bit of support and I think the way is probably to have a bit more challenging wickets to make sure there’s something in it for the bowlers, whether it’s tracks that turn or a bit more pace and bounce to give the bowlers a bit more of a chance.
“Because I don’t think we can increase the boundaries and now there is no room to go and increase the boundaries,” Dravid said.
Asked whether allowing two bouncers per over could help bowlers regain some control, Dravid avoided advocating specific rule changes but reiterated the importance of ensuring the format does not become too one-sided.
“I mean, I think anything that could do that a little bit more will give pitchers a little bit more of a chance. But I still think in the next couple of years we might see pitchers bounce back a little bit and start swinging a little bit more.”
“There’s always that balance and there are times when the bat holds the reigns, as we’re seeing in white-ball cricket at the moment and maybe in red-ball cricket we’re seeing the ball reign a little bit.”
Dravid signed off by stressing that cricket should never be overly dominated by the batsman or the bowler.
“I think at some stage we don’t want the balance to be too skewed, either on the batsmen’s side or the bowlers’ side,” he said.
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Issued by:
Saurabh Kumar
Published on:
May 12, 2026 12:34 PM IST
