The bigger and wider bat
The International Cricket Council always tried to save the batsman from the trick of bowlers. Batsmen hardly face a ban for their batting style but bowlers are forced to follows’ ICC prescribed rules otherwise they face a ban.
Comparing to cricket in the 20th century and 21st century there is a huge difference as bat started to dominate the ball better than ever before. It collision between bat and ball has become a much-commented phenomenon in recent years.
The modern day cricket’s bats are heavy and wide that helped batsmen to battered bowlers unmercifully.
The rules of cricket provided that a bat can be no wider than 4.25 inches (10.8 cm) and no longer than 38 inches (96.5 cm).
However, a report last year conducted by Imperial College London, commissioned by the MCC, found that the length and thickness of bats increased over time.
This resulted in a “significantly greater moment of inertia (pick-up weight)” and better ‘sweet spot’ characteristics for newer bats.
“This gives a significant performance advantage,” the report found.
These bats are complimented by smaller boundaries that led to fastest ODI century (331st balls by AB de Villiers) and the highest score in ODI cricket (264 off 173 balls by Rohit Sharma).