On-field bat checks to become routine affair

New Delhi, Apr 15: During the recent IPL 2025 doubleheader on Sunday, something interesting happened. On-field umpires brought out a white triangle-shaped plastic gauge and passed the bats of Shimron Hetmyer, Phil Salt and Hardik Pandya through it during the games in Jaipur and New Delhi.

With the random on-field check of bats making three appearances in a day, it is understood that this checking is going to become a routine affair for the remainder of the tournament, with an aim to maintain fairness in the matches.

To be fair, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had put in a protocol for umpires to be issued a bat gauge in 2017, which they can use to check a bat’s legality in international cricket matches.

As per its Appendix B – Equipment in T20I Playing Conditions document, a legal cricket bat should pass the gauge, whose dimensions are 2.68 inches in total depth, 4.33 inches in width, and 1.61 inches in edges. The curve of a legal bat, as per the gauge, needs to be within 0.20 inches.

Till IPL 2024, the checks of bats would be carried out by the fourth umpire with the help of a franchise’s team manager in the dressing room before a game would start, as batters carry either five or six bats in their kit bag.

But with surprise bat checks being conducted during a live match, one wonders whether there was an instance of oversized bats almost being used in the tournament and it didn’t come to the notice of the match officials.

IANS also understands that if a fourth umpire can’t check bats before the match, as dugouts of teams are situated at a fair distance from each other, then the responsibility of checking their sizes will be carried out by on-field umpires before a particular batter takes guard.

"It’s like when we check the ball frequently for its shape in matches, including at the midway point, so why not have the bats go through it? All of this is just part of the protocol to maintain fairness of the games in the IPL, and there’s nothing special about its timing,” said an umpire who’s officiated in the tournament previously to IANS, on the condition of anonymity.

With the scrutiny of IPL and BCCI on dimensions of bats happening in live matches, a franchise official told IANS that it is fair enough to stop a batter from coming out with an oversized bat in a game. “That is the standard operating procedure (SOP) from the ICC which is being duly followed by the umpires in the IPL, and it’s not something special, really."

“It’s by the laws of cricket, and following that will always maintain the fairness, as simple as that. Suppose a bat doesn’t fit in the gauge; then it can’t be used and can be duly changed in a game,” added the official.

It would be interesting to see if these bat checks have any effect on the number of boundaries hit in the innings in remaining IPL 2025 games.