Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has proposed a significant tweak to IPL taking part in situations, suggesting that bowlers who take a sure variety of wickets of their spell needs to be rewarded with a further over.Writing in his column for Mid Day, Gavaskar argued that trendy T20 cricket, particularly the IPL, has more and more tilted in favour of batters as a result of flat pitches, shorter boundaries and rules that go away bowlers with little or no margin for error. Based on him, permitting wicket-taking bowlers an additional over might restore some stability between bat and ball.

“That is the place one feels that the restriction of solely 4 overs to a bowler could possibly be checked out once more,” Gavaskar wrote. “If a batter can bat your entire 20 overs, why can’t a bowler who will get, say, three wickets in his 4 overs be allowed to bowl one other over as a reward for getting these wickets?”Gavaskar believes such a rule would encourage attacking cricket from bowling sides reasonably than defensive methods aimed solely at proscribing runs. He added, “This manner groups may also attempt getting wickets as an alternative of attempting solely to save lots of runs being scored. In spite of everything, the perfect dot ball is the wicket-taking dot ball, isn’t it?”The previous India captain pointed to the rising variety of centuries and big totals in IPL 2026 as proof that situations are closely favouring batters. Whereas praising entertaining contests, he stated tighter video games on tougher surfaces are much more thrilling than one-sided run-fests. He particularly highlighted how batters have struggled on livelier pitches in opposition to real tempo bowlers corresponding to Jofra Archer and Kagiso Rabada.To elucidate how the proposed rule would possibly work, Gavaskar referred to Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s current spell in opposition to Mumbai Indians, the place the veteran pacer took 4 wickets. Underneath the steered rule, a bowler producing such a efficiency might probably bowl an additional over on the demise, rewarding the fielding aspect for attacking bowling.“Sure, you can conceivably have three bowlers getting three wickets and an additional over every. That might even up the taking part in discipline a good bit in a format the place nearly every little thing is stacked in opposition to the bowlers,” Gavaskar added.He additionally criticised sure batting-friendly situations within the trendy recreation, together with small boundaries and strict wide-ball interpretations for short-pitched deliveries above shoulder peak.Quite than introducing the rule straight into the IPL, Gavaskar steered that the idea ought to first be examined in home competitions corresponding to metropolis leagues and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy earlier than any wider implementation is taken into account.