IPL 2022: On Sunday, We Saw The Future Of T20 Cricket

T20 is a game of tactics that keep on changing ball by ball. Teams plan a blueprint about how to go about things but sometimes unforeseen situations make them take decisions at the moment. Decisions turn out to be good or bad in hindsight but the idea should always be appreciated. 

In the double-header Sunday of IPL 2022, we saw some tactical decisions that led to various conversations. But overall, we saw teams at their tactical best, trying to outplay the opposition on every ball. 

1) Sarfaraz Khan Doesn't Bat 

Delhi Capitals took a big gamble by not sending Sarfaraz Khan to bat against Kolkata Knight Riders. It was an interesting call where they preferred sending Lalit Yadav, Rovman Powell, Axar Patel, and even Shardul Thakur ahead of the middle order batter. 

"We wanted momentum to keep going, and we knew that if we lost wickets, we'd have Sarfaraz in the end, and that is why we sent Axar and Shardul over him," Rishabh Pant said post-match. 

2) Ashwin Over Riyan Parag & A Historical Decision 

In the 2nd match of the day, Rajasthan Royals suffered a major collapse and got reduced to 67/4 in 9.5 overs. RR's thin batting depth got explored against LSG. However, the Royals sent in bowling all-rounder R Ashwin over young batter Riyan Parag at number six. Ashwin stitched a 68-run partnership with Shimron Hetmyer to help Rajasthan recover. 

In the 19th over, with 10 balls remaining in the inning, Ashwin decided to retire out that brought in Parag to the crease, and help Hetmyer finish the inning. The duo smacked 28 runs in the next nine balls to take RR to 165. 

Ashwin being sent in and then called back in the 19th over was a historic decision as he became the first player to retire out in IPL. 

"It's about being Rajasthan Royals. We keep trying different things. Have been talking about it before the season. We thought that if some situation occurs, we can use it. Was a team decision," Sanju Samson said. 

3) Lucknow's Upside Down Batting Order 

LSG lost their captain KL Rahul on the very first ball of the run chase. In an interesting call, Krishnappa Gowtham was sent in at number three, he too got out on the first ball. At number four, Jason Holder arrived but got out in the fourth over. 

Further, star batter Marcus Stoinis was sent in at number eight to finish the game. Lucknow got very close to the target and only lost the match by three runs despite a horror start. 

"It was always a plan. We know how dangerous he can be in the last five overs. As I said, we have a lot of all-rounders, so many options and so we could shuffle the batting order a bit. We like to be a bit unpredictable a bit. These kind of totals can be a bit tricky at times, plan was to throw the bowlers off their lengths a bit but didn't happen. But we're a side that would continue to try being unpredictable in the coming games too," KL Rahul said. 

What Was Common In All Three Decisions? 

In all the three scenarios, teams tried to utilise their batting depth till the last ball of the inning and keep themselves in the game throughout. Sending in Axar and Shardul ahead was to give them license to kill from the first ball since they had a cushion of having another power hitter coming. The duo smashed 49 runs in the last 20 balls to give a perfect finish to Delhi Capitals. 

Sending in Ashwin was again to keep one power hitter for the backend of the inning. Ashwin's role was to support Hetmyer and he did that to perfection. And when the time was right, Ashwin got retired out to get Parag at the crease. 

The idea of sending in Gowtham and Holder was to shield the main batters from the early new ball spell of Rajasthan Royals. It didn't work but the idea was right. After Deepak Hooda and Quinton de Kock paused the collapse with a 38-run stand for the fourth wicket, Ayush Badoni was sent in above Krunal Pandya and Marcus Stoinis. 

The plan was to give Badoni a cushion to play his shots while de Kock played the anchor role and Krunal & Stoinis till to come. When Badoni got out, Krunal was sent in, keeping Stoinis to finish the inning. 

This isn't the first time that the batting order has been shuffled but it is still very rare to see teams breaking the rigid batting order and playing according to situations. We have seen Royal Challengers Bangalore doing it a few times as well, even this season by holding back Dinesh Karthik for the last five overs. 

Also Read: IPL 2022 - Scorecard

However, watching these tactics becoming a regular feature in T20 cricket is a thing of beauty. Even though it happens at a small scale by shuffling or pushing down batters one or two slots down but trying to utilise batting depth is a thing for the future and the future looks very exciting.