Does It Matter If A Bowler Is A Spinner Or A Pacer In A T20 Game?

Twenty20 cricket has now been played for around 15 years. While it is still new in comparison to other formats and there is a lot of changes still to come, there are some things the teams have realized - the approach in a T20 match. 

T20 is a format purely made for batters. The bowlers are merely the participants of a game. Unlike in Test cricket, where the bowlers get to decide how the match pans out, in T20s it's the other way around. 

A T20 game is based on how a batting team approaches its innings. In 120 balls of an innings, the fielding team is more or less on the defense, trying to minimize the damage its opponent can cause. 

According to the pattern set in these few years of T20 cricket, a batting inning can be divided into three phases - Powerplay (1-6 overs), Middle overs (7-15), and Death Overs (16-20). 

The first phase is when a ball is new and fielding restrictions are there, which means the batters are not yet set but have the liberty to loft the ball. The second phase has the fielding restrictions lifted and fielders can now patrol the boundary. This is the time when batters try to set up a strong platform by not giving away too many wickets and also get the scoreboard ticking. The third phase is when the batting team tries to maximize the score. It is the time when batters have switched on their aggressive mode.

So, if the pattern is set in a T20 batting inning, does it matter if a bowler is a spinner or a pacer when the batter's only aim is to get the maximum possible runs on delivery bowled?

Indian Premier League (IPL) is one of the finest T20 tournaments played where top players from all over the world come to participate. Even though different teams have different strategies and tactics to play, but eventually the pattern of a T20 game remains the same. 

A close to 2 lakh deliveries have been bowled in the IPL so far. See the below table: 

The table shows a breakdown of all these deliveries according to the phases of play (PP, MO, DO). It clearly shows the pattern in which a T20 inning is approached by a team. 

When we further bifurcate it into spinners and pacers, there is still not much change. The batters are still playing with the same approach, be it a spinner or a pacer. 

The batters don't go hard on bowlers until the start of the 16th over of the inning. That's when they change gears and hence one can see decreased strike rates and averages of the bowlers in the phase. 

So, the answer is - No, it doesn't matter what type of bowler is bowling, a batting team approaches the innings in a set pattern. Is it good or bad? That discussion is for some other time. 

Also Read: India tour of England, 2021

Note - The above numbers are till the end of IPL 2020