Former India captain Rahul Dravid believes bowlers will need to constantly evolve and sharpen their skills to keep pace with the rapid growth of T20 batting. Dravid shared his views while being unveiled as the owner of the Dublin franchise in the European T20 Premier League on Monday.
“Bowlers will have to keep working on their skills and keep developing. I am sure some of them will still be able to stand out and hold their own,” Dravid said in an interview to PTI.
His comments come at a time when the ongoing IPL season has largely been dominated by batters, with several high-scoring encounters highlighting the challenge faced by bowlers in the format.
The 53-year-old feels bowlers are currently playing catch-up in T20 cricket due to the dramatic evolution in batting techniques and power-hitting.
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“To see the quality of batting that has happened over the last two or three years, I think the bowlers in that format of the game will slowly have to do some catching up,” said the former Rajasthan Royals head coach.
Dravid pointed out that modern batters have significantly improved their range and ability to clear boundaries.
“I think batsmanship and the ability to hit sixes and access different parts of the ground has certainly improved leaps and bounds,” he added.
The former India coach, who also guided the U-19 team to World Cup glory in 2018, believes batters have adapted to modern T20 demands more effectively than bowlers so far, though he expects that balance could shift in the coming years.
“If you look at it in terms of balance, probably a lot more batsmen are able to cope with the requirements of the modern T20 game than some of the bowlers have been able to at this point of time. That may change in two or three years,” he said.
Dravid, the fifth-highest run-scorer in Test cricket with 13,288 runs, also spoke about the contrasting nature of the longest format, where he feels bowlers are beginning to dominate again.
“If you look at Test cricket today, nearly every Test match produces a result. Bowlers are probably holding sway in some of the Test matches that we are seeing,” Dravid explained.
He noted that many Tests are finishing well inside five days, with even two and three-day matches becoming more common.
“Bowlers have started holding sway in Test cricket,” he added.
However, Dravid stressed that bowlers still need assistance through conditions that offer them more support.
“They may need a little bit of support. The way is probably to have slightly more challenging wickets to ensure there is something in it for the bowlers, whether it is tracks that turn or surfaces with a little more pace and bounce,” he said.
Dravid also pointed out that increasing boundary sizes is not a practical solution.
“I don't think we can increase the size of the boundaries and already there is no space to go and increase them,” he added.
He concluded by warning against allowing the game to become too heavily tilted in favour of either batters or bowlers.
“At some stage, we don't want the balance to be too skewed either way, either on the side of the batsmen or the side of the bowlers,” Dravid said.
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