The 2024 edition of the IPL has seen hitters step up to a new level - with 200-plus totals becoming routine and 200-plus chases being achieved too. Is this an inflection point for the format? And how should we be talking about the sport if this is the new normal?

Support 81allout on Ko-Fi

Talking Points:

• Why has this IPL seen a sudden jump in totals?
• Has the impact-player rule played a significant role in raising totals?
• Have teams found more hitters to accomodate in the XIs?
• Jake Fraser-McGurk - the prototypical T20 hitter
• The effect of non-capped Indian players like Abhishek Sharma, Ashutosh Sharma
• Why Dhoni bats so late in the game: the effect of platooning
• What does it mean when you wish for a balance between bat and ball in T20s?
• Why higher scores suggest the hitters are more in control of their shot-making

Participants:

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Karthikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)

India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)

Australia (paperback, e-copy)

USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related:

• Hitting v Batting: the choice that dictates the shape of a T20 contest - 81allout podcast
• What’s the deal with T20 bowling? - 81allout podcast
• Jake Fraser-McGurk, the ideal T20 batter - Sidharth Monga - ESPNcricinfo
• How Do International Cricketers Do At The IPL? - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview

How much does bowling matter in T20s and how does one measure the potency of a bowler in this format? What are the measures of excellence for a T20 bowler?

Support 81allout on Ko-fi

Talking Points:

• How does one describe a good T20 bowler?
• Is it possible to separate actions and outcomes for T20 bowling?
• A format that offers the bowlers almost no leverage
• What is the role of bowlers in a contest designed to be between bat and bat?
• Does a great T20 bowler need any particular skills?
• The value of bowlers with unconventional actions
• What Jasprit Bumrah does well in T20s
• Why T20 bowlers can't be viewed in the same way as Test or ODI bowlers
• Can we gauge bowling in T20s before hitting has reached its full potential?
• The future of T20 bowling - and why some rule changes can bring bowlers into the game
• The Harshal Patel problem for T20 bowlers
• Are teams being inefficient when paying huge sums for bowlers?

Participants:

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Karthikeya Date (@cricketingview) | Substack | ESPNcricinfo

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)

India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)

Australia (paperback, e-copy)

USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related:

• Hitting v Batting: the choice that dictates the shape of a T20 contest - 81allout podcast
• Bowling doesn't really matter in T20 - Kartikeya Date - Cricketingview
• Ferociously fast and thrillingly direct: how Mayank went bang, bang, bang - Karthik Krishnaswamy - ESPNcricinfo
• 'If you go searching for wickets in T20, you're playing into the batsman's hand' - Samuel Badree interview by Nagraj Gollapudi - The Cricket Monthly
• ICC recommends ODI rule changes - Cricket Australia

T20 started in the early 2000s but what if the format was invented 15 years earlier. Who were the players who would have excelled in the shorter format? We decided to pick a T20 side from the era before the IPL and debated how Aravinda de Silva and Brian Lara might have changed their game for T20s. And if players like Ricardo Powell and Adrian Kuiper would have had more illustrious careers than they did.

Support 81allout on Ko-Fi

Talking Points:

• The evolution of ODIs and T20s - and how both took about 20 years ago mature
• Would players like Sunil Narine have been as big a star if not for T20s?
• The West Indian legacy in terms of accelerating the T20 evolution
• Which players from the past would have thrived in this format?
• Would you have heard much more of Alistair Brown and Michael Di Venuto had T20s been around earlier?
• Would Aravinda de Silva have continued his Mad Max avatar in T20s?
• Ricardo Powell, Atul Bedade, Robin Singh - the superstars who could have been
• Players like Lance Klusener who rigorously practiced range-hitting
• The value of a good googly bowler in T20s

Participants:

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

Ashoka (@ABVan)

Deepauk Murugesan (@complicateur)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buy The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh (republished by 81allout)

India (hardback) | India (paperback) | India (e-copy)

Australia (paperback, e-copy)

USA (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

UK (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

Canada (hardback, paperback, e-copy)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Related:

• Ijaz Ahmed's 84-ball 139 v India in Lahore in 1997 - YouTube
• When Surrey smashed the 50-over World Record thanks to Alistair Brown's 268 - YouTube
• When Kapil Dev hit four sixes in a row to avoid the follow-on at Lord's - YouTube
• Atul Bedade's big day in Sharjah - YouTube