'There's hardly any time' - Gautam Gambhir not in favour of splitting T20s into 2 innings

Cricket has come a long way over the years. From timeless Tests to five-day matches, from 60-over to 50-over One-Day games and from 50-over to 20-over matches. Even the T10 format is being played nowadays to attract crowds even as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) introduced The Hundred (100-ball format) which was set to get underway this year only to be postponed to 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

While the T10 format is yet to be played at the international level, there have been talks recently of splitting a 20-over innings into two sets of 10 overs. However, the former India opener Gautam Gambhir is not in the favour of the same. Earlier, even Sachin Tendulkar had suggested an idea of splitting of a 50-over ODI innings into two sets of 25 overs each to make the format more interesting and engaging for the spectators.

Gambhir also pointed out the same stating that they can think of tweaking the One-Day format but trimming the T20 form of the game further would not be a great idea.

“I’m not a big believer that we should split T20 cricket into two innings. I think, Sachin Tendulkar somewhere gave a suggestion that we could try doing it with 50 overs which makes a lot of sense, because you’ve got 25 overs (each),” he said while speaking in the Star Sports’ Cricket Connected.

Gambhir also advocated that having 25 overs each in two innings of a One-Day game would make it interesting as it also takes the toss advantage away from the team. But he also felt that there is not much time in the shortest format to further trim it into 10 overs per inning.

“It (splitting one-dayers) also probably takes the toss away as well because in some conditions the toss plays a huge role and I was absolutely in favour of that as well. But not in T20 cricket, it’s too short a format and there’s hardly any time. Splitting that into 10 overs each will be too short an inning,” the 38-year-old added.

Four innings is a bit too much, feels Brett Lee

Former Australia pacer Brett Lee also voice a similar opinion like Gautam Gambhir while also stating that the ongoing leagues like IPL, BBL etc.. are enough to keep the excitement going about the game. He felt that traditional changes should not be made in cricket and having four innings in a T20 format is a little too much.

“I am all for T20 cricket whether it’s the Indian Premier League or the Big Bash to have some flair about it, some excitement to bring people to the game. But there are some things you want to keep traditional when it comes to cricket and I think having four innings is a bit too much. I still think it’s always nice to see a target, and try and chase that target down or defend it,” Lee said.