The Indian Premier League keeps rewriting its own record book. Scores of 240-plus no longer feel outlandish, and on Monday night Sunrisers Hyderabad ticked off 244 with seven balls unused. Afterwards their spin-bowling coach, Muttiah Muralidaran, accepted that bowlers are swimming against a tide of power-hitting – and, crucially, that fans seem to like it that way.
“If we give fair wickets, the spectators will say it’s become boring because the T20 followers want entertainment, so they want to see the fours and sixes,” he said. The IPL, he added, is “big business at the moment”, and administrators are unlikely to mess with a formula that drives television numbers.
Key facts first
• SRH 248 for 4 (Finn Allen 92, Abhishek Sharma 61) beat Mumbai Indians 244 for 6 by six wickets.
• The target was the fifth-highest successfully chased in IPL history.
• Aggregate runs this season have climbed to 9.15 per over, the competition’s highest rate.
Fearless from ball one
Muralidaran painted a picture of a generation of batters who begin swinging almost before they take guard. “It’s very difficult for a bowler because these days, because of every team, not only us [SRH], has an opening [pair] that doesn’t care about in or out, they just go after the bowling,” he said. “When we used to playm about 40 to 50 runs was a good score with one wicket losing in six overs, now the average is 70 to 80.”
That attitude stretches well beyond established stars. Uncapped 23-year-old Salil Arora launched a no-look six off Jasprit Bumrah – once practically unthinkable. “Even a good bowler goes for a six, [even] Bumrah goes for one or two balls,” Muralidaran noted. “Abhishek [Sharma], the way he hits, it’s unbelievable, but when a new boy Salil hits a six, it’s unbelievable – you don’t think [someone with] the calibre of Bumrah comes and a young boy will hit a six [off him] because he will think about how am I going to survive [Bumrah]. But nowadays, no, [it’s about] how am I going to hit a six – that’s their approach. Confidence levels are gone up because people have showed this is the way to play the modern game and youngsters are following that.”
Tip for bowlers: accuracy, then more accuracy
For those with ball in hand, there is precious little sympathy. “So, for bowlers, there is not much to say; they have to practise a lot and be accurate as possible. On your day, you might do well, even if you do well sometimes you are in the receiving end because of the wicket and the conditions.”
He expects a tactical arms race to continue. “Now the bowlers will go back [from] this tournament, [and figure out] how we can contain. They will come up with something, and the batsmen will find something else – this is the way the modern cricketers are going.”
Why spin needs a rethink
Even as he remains SRH’s spin mentor, the Sri Lankan great concedes that the craft is changing. “[Spinners] only try to bowl quicker, and not try to spin it [the ball],” he warned. The habit, he believes, is formed long before the IPL auction. “Because they are not getting that ability from the younger age, you can’t come to [Under-19s] and try to spin the ball because their muscle memory is already there… So when you are age of 10, 11, 12, try to spin – we need to spin to beat the bat.”
If youngsters do not learn to impart revolutions, the batter’s task becomes too easy. “So it looks like a throwdown bowler bowling at you, and batters are getting into the line and hitting. So if you spin, so they also, their [batters’] eyes also open and they say ‘oh it’s spinning, so I’m missing it’, [and they think about] which way it’s going to spin.”
Analysis without the jargon
In short, the IPL’s current ecosystem rewards aggression, demands innovation and leaves little room for romantic notions of “fair” wickets. Flat pitches, short boundaries and stronger bats all tilt the scales. The challenge for coaches like Muralidaran is to arm bowlers with new tools – wider yorkers, split-finger slower balls, even occasional bouncers – while persuading curators to leave just a fraction more grass.
None of that is likely to happen overnight. For now, the league’s economics point towards more runs, higher chases and further recalibration of what is considered par. Bowlers, Muralidaran admits, must simply adapt or watch the ball disappear into the second tier.
