Lucknow: Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir believes that the use of two new balls should be stopped from ODI cricket. Gambhir says that because of this rule, reverse swing has disappeared for bowlers in one-day cricket. Let us tell you that Gambhir is currently playing the role of mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. The team is continuously performing well under his coaching and after the end of the league stage, they have retained the first position in the points table.
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Giving the example of India's legendary off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and Australia's Nathan Lyon, Gautam said that due to the presence of two new balls, they were not getting a place in the 50-over format. He believes that both of them are such bowlers who have taken more than 400 wickets in Test cricket but despite this there is no place for them in ODI cricket. In such a situation, during a recent conversation on 180 Podcast, Gautam gave a big reaction regarding this.
He said, “Two new balls are the worst thing in one-day cricket. Just think about how many finger spinners play in this format. On one side there are Ashwin and Lyon, who have taken 400 wickets in Test cricket but do not play ODI cricket. This is the only reason behind the finger spinner not playing.”
Gambhir further said that “This rule reduces the effectiveness of the finger spinner. Imagine that a person who has taken 400 Test wickets will not play ODI cricket because he does not have many options to take wickets or he is not able to bowl economically. Reverse swing is an art which has completely gone out of the game. I want to see reverse swing and see the batsmen being challenged. Bowling at a speed of 150 and reverse swing is always challenging.”
The former Indian player says that “This rule needs to be abolished from ODI cricket. The two new balls should be completely eliminated and only one ball should be kept. “With this, the bowlers will be able to present more challenges to the batsmen.”
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