Where have the batters disappeared ?

Season 22 has begun on a rather strange note. With the holidays looming and player availability uncertain, the early concern wasn’t about results—it was about whether we’d even have games to play.

Thankfully, thanks largely to a few committed souls led by the indomitable Vicky, we made sure every weekend featured a contest that mattered. While the scoreline shows the Raptors edging it 5–4, that hasn’t been the real story of the season. The real headline has been the persistent run of low scores witnessed at the maidaan.

Call it cold starts, stronger bowling attacks, smarter and more aggressive captaincy, or the absence of the Ha-Ka-Ha troika—but we’ve never seen run rates dip this low. Six an over has usually been par for the course; this season, teams have struggled to even reach 50 in an innings, effectively halving the average scoring rate.

The Raptors etched their name into the record books by being bundled out for 27—an all-time low team score. Many assumed it was a freak occurrence. What followed, however, were totals of 47, 54, 51 and 61, suggesting a deeper malaise.

So what’s going wrong? The bowlers are largely the same, bowling in much the same way. Have the batters lost the plot, or has the lure of the highlight reel overtaken the value of batting through an innings?

Samir has repeatedly urged his side to bat more responsibly, but apart from the last chase—made to look effortless thanks to Chaitanya’s belligerence—the season has largely resembled a game of nine pins.

AK showed in his brief stay yesterday the importance of strike rotation. It pushes the bowling side onto the defensive and forces errors. Batters would do well to reflect on what is achievable rather than what looks spectacular. Ahaan’s dismissal was a classic example: taking on arguably the best bowler going around, Dinesh, he chose ultra-aggression as the only route and paid the price. Ironically, Dinesh mirrored that approach with the bat—launching a beauty for six, then perishing next ball attempting an encore.

At the maidaan, there are enough unfortunate ways to get out. It’s time batters stopped self-destructing. As a great man once said—words overheard in a pre-innings huddle—“Watch the ball closely and play.”