Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin firmly believes that the changes in the ODI powerplay rules made in 2015 were intended to curb India’s dominance on the world stage.
Ashwin On New Changes in ODI Powerplay Rules
Back in 2015, the ICC introduced the two-new-ball rule from both ends in an innings. They mandated only four fielders be allowed outside the 30-yard circle in the middle overs. These changes proved challenging for spinners, as they had to bowl with a new ball and one extra fielder inside the circle.
In a recent interaction, Ashwin recalled that India were a dominant side back in 2013-14 with the spinners playing a massive role but it all changed with the implementation of the new rules
“Team India were dominating ODI cricket in the period during 2013-14. One of the main reasons for that was we did not have 5 fielders inside the circle rule and the two new balls rule. I somewhere feel India’s dominance with spin was choking world cricket,” Ashwin said on his official YouTube channel.
“(Ravindra) Jadeja and I were the two spinners at that time. Yuvraj (Singh) and Yusuf (Pathan) used to chip in with some overs. With four fielders inside the circle, it was very difficult to get away in the middle overs. But then they implemented the two new balls rule and all brought the 5 fielders inside the circle rule. Once they did that, the 240-250-260 games disappeared,” the veteran spinner added.
Ashwin also praised KL Rahul and said that he is slowly becoming a perfect middle-order batter.
“Apparently KL Rahul was not supposed to play that game. Shreyas Iyer was going to play that game initially. I have always maintained KL Rahul at No. 5 is a lock. ODI cricket should have its ebbs and flows. KL Rahul is giving us the stability with the bat in the middle order.”
That’s why batting in the middle order is really difficult. MS Dhoni nailed that art. I am not comparing MS Dhoni and KL Rahul at all. But I feel he is slowly mastering his role perfectly.” he explained.
What are the ODI powerplay rules?
In T20 cricket, the powerplay is only for six overs while the fielding team can place as many as 5 fielders outside the 30-yard circle for the rest of the innings. However, when it comes to ODI cricket, things have drastically over the years and we will concentrate only on the current ODI powerplay rules in this section.
As mentioned above, a 50-over ODI inning is divided into three phases – 1-10 overs, 11-40 overs and 41-50 overs.
In the first 10 overs of innings, a maximum of only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle providing a chance for the batting team to take the attack to the opposition.
In the second phase – 11-40 overs – which is also called the middle overs in the 50-over cricket, a maximum of four fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle. During this period, the batting team majorly looks to build an innings with a rotation of the strike while looking for an odd boundary here and there.
Then comes the final phase of the ODI innings – 41-50 overs – that is termed as death overs. In this phase, the fielding team is allowed a maximum of five fielders outside the 30-yard circle. This is to give the bowler maximum protection in order to save boundaries as batters look to attack almost every delivery in order to post or chase the total on the board.
