When Kuldeep Yadav burst onto the international scene in 2017, apart from the fact that he was one of very few international bowlers of left-arm wristspin, his slowness made him even more difficult to hit.
Within two years, though, he was struggling to hold his place down in his IPL side, and his ODI numbers had started to suffer. The period from 2019 to 2021, during which he lost his IPL contract, was horrible for him.
Kuldeep changed a lot in his technique to make a stellar comeback to limited-overs cricket, but the headline difference was increased pace while still putting similar action on the ball. Partly because of this, he isn't turning the ball as much as before but is giving batters less time to adjust to any grip or movement off the pitch. The increase in speed has more than compensated for the slight reduction in turn, and he has become one of the best spinners in the world again.
To varying extents, with perhaps not as much visible change, that has largely been the story for all spinners. When Rahul Chahar was selected ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal for the T20 World Cup in the UAE, the reason, the instinct, was pace. From around 2020 onwards, pace became the buzzword to qualify spin. It bears itself out in the numbers.
This is mainly a reaction to being under attack. From once an over in 2017, batters are attempting boundaries once every four balls of spin now. In the face of this increased aggression, the spinner's increase in pace aims at reducing the time a batter has to step down the track or use the crease to attack the ball.
This change is complemented by a change in the lengths the spinners bowl. The region of the pitch four to five metres from the stumps is the traditional Test match good length: pitching the ball there draws the batter forward and induces mistakes but leaves enough distance for the ball to turn. The five-to-six-metre length is the "defensive" good length, where the ball pitches far away from the batter's arc and bounces to the top of the stumps. This makes attacking hitting difficult - thus making this length defensive.
The set of three graphs below shows the change within the percentage of the three length bins within the 4-7m category over the years in the IPL. It is clear that the defensive option has started to dominate, even as spinners have consistently moved away from the batter's hitting arc by bowling fewer balls in the 4-5m length. Even if we allow a metre's room for error, the spinners are now aiming more at the 5-7m band than 4-6m.
This is not happening in a vacuum. Given a choice, spinners will love to bowl for more wickets, but there is a combination of factors at play that has not left them an option. Pitches have continued to become flatter, batters have continued to become bolder, and in the IPL the Impact Player has added further freedom to the batting approach. The year 2020 was something of an anomaly in this regard. That was when the IPL went to the UAE, where, in Sharjah, the ball gripped more than in India, and the other two venues had relatively big boundaries. The same happened during the T20 World Cup in 2024. When there was something in the pitches, Kuldeep's average pace dropped to 84.5kmph.
The conditions in the IPL in India provide a perfect storm for batters: flat pitches that become quicker and more skiddy under lights, and small boundaries. In this context, it is a borderline back-handed compliment to the groundsmen to say that they have perfected the art of making pitches that offer neither grip nor low bounce. The spinners need one element of assistance: either some grip to draw big mishits, or for the boundaries to be big enough to hurt batters on a normal mishit. They get neither, so they are forced to go defensive.
Now if the spinners do bowl these defensive lengths at slower paces, the ball sits up for the batters to rock back and hit. Over the years the back-foot power game against spin has only improved. More batters are beginning to play the Heinrich Klaasen-like vertical pull efficiently.
If spinners go fuller with pitches not offering them anything, they leave themselves open to what is known in Indian cricket as a "step hit", where a batter plants their front foot down and takes you downtown - a spinner's worst failure. You have to at least make them leave their crease, or sweep, if they are going to attack. With the margin for error so low, though, shorter without getting pulled seems to be the way to go.
The graphic below shows the batting strike rate by year in the IPL for three length ranges. It is apparent that the shorter lengths are ideal when you're looking to restrict run-scoring. The 4-5m length, especially, was blown away in the 2024 season, which produced significantly flatter surfaces than in previous years.
The final graphic shows the batting strike rates for different speed and length ranges in the last three seasons of the IPL. It reveals the interplay of speed and length that is crucial to thwarting batters in advanced T20 cricket with flatter pitches and belligerent batting. When going shortish (5-6m), it's beneficial to bowl quicker to restrict batters from going back and hitting. When going fuller, bowling quick is detrimental, as it reduces the amount of deviation off the pitch; the 4-5m length works best, if at all, combined with low speeds. This full and slow option has been masterfully used by the likes of Chahal, but the possibilities for it are shrinking with shorter boundaries and placid pitches.
The 5-6m length remains the optimal restrictive option regardless of speed. In the early days of T20, many observers said spinners were doomed. Spinners triumphed - many with their slowness - to make their mark, but the modern trend of standardised, "easy" surfaces is squeezing them into the Goldilocks zone of the 5-7m length. The thing about bowlers is that they often find a way to stay relevant in the sport. This journey of adaptation is never complete and will continue to fascinate.
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