Spin bowlers have had a much bigger impact in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 than they did in 2024, as per ESPNcricinfo. After 50 matches this season, spinners had taken 220 wickets at an average of 30.02. At the same stage last year, they had only picked up 154 wickets, with a much higher average of nearly 37.
Veteran spinner Piyush Chawla, who is still the third-highest wicket-taker in IPL history with 192 wickets (behind Yuzvendra Chahal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar), believes that the hot weather across India has played a major role in this shift.
“Any bowler wants to bowl with the dry ball. And you can’t really predict where it’s going to be (dewy or otherwise) and where it’s not going to be,” he said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“If you see the weather also this year, generally… I’m coming from Delhi, and in February you don’t have your fans on; but this year, your fans were on in February. That means it’s getting hotter and Delhi is already touching almost 45 degrees (Celsius),” he said on ESPNcricinfo’s Time Out show.
“So all the venues where it’s hot, the pitches are dry. No matter how much you roll it, how much you water it, eventually it gets dry, and it helps the spinners,” he added.
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However, it’s not just the conditions. According to Chawla, spinners have also put in a lot of effort off the field–studying batters, improving their skills, and trying new things.
“If you see the spinners here, they are actually pulling their lengths back, rather than going too full, because now most of the batters don’t use their feet, except a few,” Chawla said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“So they (the batters) just wait for the ball to pitch up in their area, and sometimes when they don’t get a couple of sixes in two or three overs, even the ball that is not there to be hit, they go for it. And in that situation, they end up mistiming it,” he added.
In the middle overs especially, spinners have been more effective. They’ve taken 171 wickets in that phase this season–44 more than at the same point last year–and have bowled more than 61% of the overs. In contrast, in 2024, fast bowlers had more success in the middle overs, taking 138 wickets to the spinners’ 127. That trend has reversed this year, with quicks managing only 106 wickets.
“Shreyas Iyer is one example, who has got good reach, so even if the ball is a little further away from him, he can still manage. But most of the batters, they don’t get that kind of power behind (their shots from such positions). The spinners have become smarter the way they have started pulling their lengths (back) and the pace also,” Chawla said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“Pace is playing a big role here. Because they are pulling their lengths back, you don’t want somebody to go on the back foot and pull you through midwicket and square leg. So you want to make sure you are bowling somewhere around 90-odd (kph), so even if they go on the back foot, they just have to nudge it around for one or two. That’s playing a big role,” he added.
The Impact Player rule could also be influencing things. Most teams are using it to swap a batter and a fast bowler but Chawla feels teams should think about giving spinners chances during the powerplay, where they haven’t been used as much.
“Because you have the extra option of a fast bowler with the Impact Sub and then there are a lot of players who… if there is one Indian who is opening the innings, as a captain they think that they play spinners really well and then spinners can go for plenty,” Chawla said, as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
“And if you really want to bowl a spinner, you have to have that kind of experience to bowl in the powerplay, because it’s not an easy job to do. Or the first or second over, because that is, I feel, in T20 cricket the easiest overs to bowl. You can use your spinner there,” he added.
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