Flower, Chakaravarthy back ball-change for dew; downplay saliva use

Both Andy Flower and Varun Chakaravarthy see merit in changing the wet ball in the second innings of a dew-affected match.

As per the new playing conditions for IPL 2025, earlier reported by Cricbuzz, the team bowling second can now request a ball change to counter dew. The bowling captain can make this request after the 10th over regardless of "visible dew" and the umpires will "mandatorily replace the ball with one of similar wear and tear". The fielding side cannot choose the replacement.

"I like the rule change on the captains electing when they can take a second ball in the second half of the innings," said Flower, the head coach of Royal Challengers Bengaluru. "I've always wondered why there was this reticence on the umpires' part to change the ball, to make it an even and fair contest, and that's what we're looking for.

"You know, the people that make the rules under which we play the game of cricket, and ground staff preparing pitches, we're always looking for a fair balance between bat and ball, and in conditions where dew does affect game significantly, think that's a really good rule change, and about time."

Chakaravarthy, the Kolkata Knight Riders spinner, felt that the second ball could dictate when the spinners bowl their overs. "The dew part where you can change the ball might help the spinners and the moment they change the ball, the 11th, 12th and 13th [overs] it could be a spinner bowling because the ball won't be that wet. So that change is what I am forecasting here. That's what I can see."

While it remains to be seen how the second new ball leaves a mark on the game, both Chakaravarthy and Flower reckoned that revoking the saliva ban, that has been in place since the pandemic and been made permanent by ICC for international matches, might not have as much in it for the bowlers.

"I don't think that's going to make much difference regarding the saliva," said Chakavarthy.

Flower concurred: "The saliva part, I mean, I don't see it as being that important," Flower said. "We'll see if it has an effect, as long as not too many people all of a sudden become huge fans of sugary sweets [smiles]."

The new rules were revealed during the meeting of the captains and managers in Mumbai on Thursday (March 20). The restoration of the bat-ball balance by the administrators looked on the cards after eight 250+ totals were made in the last season. The 16 IPL seasons before that saw a combined tally of only two 250+ scores.

Flower acknowledged the shift in T20 dynamics, with "power" becoming more central to batting plans.

"You definitely see batting swings becoming a little more baseball-like, absolutely, and physiques," said Flower. "So a lot of the batsmen are getting bigger and stronger, and they're recognizing the importance of strength. And in fact, a better description would be power rather than strength. So strength added with speed. And you get this power output of these really, really strong guys.

"There's still place in the game for players like Virat Kohli as well, who is obviously, super fit, strong young man as well. But there's still space for high quality, highly intelligent cricketers like that as well."

Flower said that RCB as a franchise put a lot of emphasis on "power" while putting together their batting line-up this season but hoped that the newly-introduced rules will help make bowling a little more "effective" in these challenging climes, where batters are swinging for the fences on surfaces that hold up pretty well.

"There is a shift towards power, there's no doubt about that, and we saw that in the scores," said Flower. "I hope that some of the rule changes will balance out a little more bowling effectiveness as well, so that we keep that balance in the game.

"But you see just in the selection of our batting unit, you will see the emphasis on power, with just a couple of exceptions. And I think that is the way the game is going.

"So it's really exciting to be involved in the game at the moment, because it is moving quite quickly in various ways. Even in the decisions that the administrators are going to have to make to balance out various aspects of the formats of the game. It's really fascinating to be part of and watch. So, yeah, I think it's just great that we're in a high profile tournament that's setting new standards, and I would imagine this is going to be an amazing couple of months."