T20 World Cup: Bigger boundaries, true bounce and no dew make it a level playing field

If a T20 contest turns predictable, it’s probably one of the most boring formats of all. And when it’s an external factor that influences the outcome, it reflects poorly on the tournament. That’s what happened in Dubai during the T20 World Cup last year and more recently in the Asia Cup, except in the final where Sri Lanka defied all odds to beat Pakistan. In most cases, however, it was ‘win the toss, bowl first and win the match’. India suffered in both these tournaments and it is unfair on any team to be at the receiving end of a situation like this.

That’s where Australia is likely to be different. Toss, it can be expected, won’t play a part or at best play a marginal role in influencing the outcome of a match. Wickets are expected to stay true at most venues and with dew not being a factor, this T20 World Cup will be a level playing field in every sense. It will be about form and on the day with external factors having little impact on team performance.

What is also important in Australia is that every kind of player — batter, fast bowler and spin bowler — will have a role. While batters will get value for their shots and also have the option of rotating strike in the bigger grounds, fast bowlers in most cases will get good carry first up. From the evidence on hand, there is bounce and carry in almost all venues and hit-thedeck bowlers should do well to exploit it. In India’s first warm-up game the seamers — Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh — got movement early on and in the second, Hardik Pandya was able to get the ball to bounce appreciably at the start of the innings.

Spinners, too, are expected to play a key role as Australia boasts of big grounds. When you play in smaller stadiums like Sharjah, spinners are often reduced to just participants.

Even mishits clear the boundary ropes and slow bowlers often find themselves at the receiving end. That may not be the case in Australia. Someone with skills like Yuzvendra Chahal or Ravichandran Ashwin will have enough cushion to go for wickets. Rashid Khan, for example, has done extremely well in Australia’s T20 competition, the Big Bash League.

In fact, Australia has the secondlowest boundary percentage in T20 cricket in the last two years. According to ESPNcricinfo, just 54.1% of runs are scored in fours and sixes in Australia, second-lowest behind South Africa (51.7%). In sum, conditions won’t determine the outcome of the games. Teams with versatility and balance will have an advantage and that’s where the tournament can actually live up to the billing of being an open competition, which any one can win.

For India, there couldn’t be anything better than playing the first game in Melbourne. The top order, unlike that of England or Australia, is more reliant on timing and picking gaps early on than outright power hitting. Someone like Virat Kohli, for example, is a master of picking gaps and rotating strike. If only the Tim Davids of the world shine in the format, skill is rendered redundant. More than power, skill will determine who performs better in Melbourne. Maybe that’s why Jasprit Bumrah will be that much missed. With the conditions not doing much at the end of the innings, India will miss his unmatched ability to bowl in the death overs.

Also, with teams all looking reasonably well stacked up on paper there are no real favourites going into the competition. In a World Cup you want close contests all through and that’s what Australia promises to provide. In a team sport, you don’t want a Roland Garros like situation. You don’t want someone as dominant as Rafael Nadal for then it makes the tournament somewhat boring