Virat Kohli, Stuart Broad and Mitchell McClenaghan back Sachin Tendulkar in ODI new balls debate

Sudhir Gupta 18:24 22/06/2018
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  • Kohli has supported Sachin Tendulkar's views on the subject.

    India skipper Virat Kohli, England pacer Stuart Broad and New Zealand’s Mitchell McClenaghan have all joined the chorus against the two new balls rule in ODI cricket following Sachin Tendulkar and Waqar Younis’ criticisms.

    Earlier on Friday, Tendulkar had suggested the two-ball rule was stopping bowlers from generating reverse swing.

    “Having two new balls in one day is a perfect recipe for disaster as each ball is not given the time to get old enough to reverse. We haven’t seen reverse swing, an integral part of the death overs, for a long time,” Tendulkar had written in a Twitter post.

    His comments received support from Pakistan pace legend Waqar Younis shortly after who agreed that reverse swing was a dying art in the current limited-overs game.

    Kohli gave his views on the issue during the pre-tour press conference in New Delhi ahead of India’s departure for Ireland and England.

    “I think it’s brutal for the bowlers. I have played ODI cricket when there was only one new ball allowed and reverse swing used to be a massive factor in the latter half of the innings, which I think as a batsman was more challenging,” Kohli said.

    Soon, Broad and McClenaghan too took to Twitter to have their say on the rule. “I find reverse swing really exciting to watch, I’d like to see it back in the white ball game,” Broad wrote in his post.

    New Zealand and Mumbai Indians pacer McClenaghan agreed with Tendulkar’s post, tweeting: “Could it be said any better? – don’t think so,” the Kiwi stated.

    The two new balls rule came into effect in ODI cricket in 2011 with each ball getting used for 25 overs.

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