Powerplay changes one-day cricket

Returning to India is always a pleasant experience. As the ICC Champions Trophy gets under way it is an opportunity for the teams - all of them arrived first in New Delhi - to gauge each other and to assess themselves against the best opposition available. The luxury lifestyle that modern cricketers enjoy is demonstrated by the plush surrounds of the Le Meridien Hotel.

It is always strange at the beginning of a tournament when all the teams are in the same hotel and intense rivalries are momentarily shelved as the players mingle for breakfasts and at restaurants. It is when players get to know each other and establish friendships that make the world of cricket a much smaller place.

The ICC Champions Trophy is a tougher version of the World Cup because you are pitted against the world in a compressed time frame and format. The first three games are vital and you have to hit the ground running. Interestingly all games are day/night affairs and as we are all aware this can be a lottery, more of a lottery than one-day games already are. Skill levels under lights are tested as artificial light is naturally harder to play under than normal light.

One of the main areas where batsmen especially are tested is at night and having to settle in when arriving at the crease and is one of the reasons why most teams, I am sure, would prefer to bat first. This is sometimes offset by dew affecting the ball and therefore the bowler. Recently some day games have been toss-affected because the pitches have started damp and encouraged the seamers, making life tough for the early batters, and then as the pitches dried out they become better, inevitably favouring the side batting second. As the games are starting after 2pm any effect watering has had on pitches should have diminished considerably, theoretically making batting first easier and only those sides who prefer chasing will not be adversely affected.

The dew factor at this time of the year in India may be a deciding factor. It will be important for the side fielding second to try and take early wickets to protect their total. It becomes impossible for the ball to swing, seam or spin once it gets wet and it takes only a few hits to ruin a changed ball. This makes the team batting first ensure a defendable total of 280-320, which seems to be a par score on Indian pitches.

We are also witnessing the fact that there are no real favourites; the standard of one-day cricket has improved 10-fold in recent years and all the teams have progressed to a stage that any team might win a given match. Perennially, Australia have had the winning habit and are favourites but recently more teams have started to push and beat them and they no longer have the invincibility tag. Perhaps a better way of saying it is that the other teams are catching up or indeed have caught up. This augurs well for a really exciting contest.

In the last two years the advent of the Powerplay after the 10th over has made a difference. Normally after 15 overs the game went into the drill of run accumulation by the batsmen, now the first 20 overs of Powerplay has meant that teams can continue to push, either successfully or losing more wickets than they would like. This in turn has led to a slight change in the wickets-in-hand philosophy for the last 10 overs. If, of course, the team batting first are 120 for 1 after 20 then they can push on to a big score. This has resulted in the 400-run barrier being broken more often. Indeed, in subcontinent conditions, with sometimes perfect batting wickets, a par score of 300 may not be enough.

There is now more accent on wicket-taking as one of the few methods to slow teams down and even then the counter measure is to keep attacking. This strategy too is evolving thanks to the Twenty20 competitions that are springing up around the world with players evolving better techniques. The great thing about one-day cricket is that there is always a basic principle to follow but there is now more scope for the "Wonder Kid" and extraordinary performance.

Despite the great strides that teams have made with fielding techniques, they are being tested by batsmen who almost ignore the fact that there are fielders by-passing them aerially. Under pressure most teams show cracks in the field, and one dropped catch now can lead to mayhem. Attention to detail and greater concentration by the fielding sides will be needed to adapt to the growing confidence of batsmen to have a go at the poor bowlers, especially on flat tracks.

The major difference that I have noticed is the speed at which the game is played now. I look back at my era and I see an almost leisurely feel to the game; I look at footage before my era and I see an even slower game, played by players undoubtedly great in their era. But the game is evolving and of course always will.

So I return to my original statement that we can expect some great cricket at this ICC Champions Trophy. The hospitality will as always be so good in India and we can see all the teams making plans for the ultimate prize in the West Indies.