When the IPL Twenty20 tournament kicked off, a lot of the cricketing experts and pundits (including us :P) predicted that the Twenty20 format would increase the demand for all-rounders. The thinking was that every player in the playing 11 will be valuable in the quick-fire style of play, and the more a player can do, the more he can contribute to the side, and the more valuable he will be.

This thinking was carried over to the player auctions, when some of the all-rounders fetched incredibly high prices (Andrew Symonds and Dhoni (wicketkeeper-batsman)).

But as the IPL enters its third week, I’m beginning to suspect that this thinking is fundamentally flawed, and so did a few of the Unofficial IPL blog readers. If you look at the performance of the players in the two weeks worth of matches, you’ll see a key pattern emerging. The specialist batsmen are doing a lot more by focusing solely on the batting. Think of McCullum who’s become a specialist 6-hitter of sorts. Then there’s Hayden and Raina who’ve started to improvise and create new cricketing shots.

But the real surprise has been the emergence of the specialist bowlers. Conventional wisdom says that Twenty20 is a batsman’s game, and that bowlers will struggle in this format. Well, guess what? Shane Warne and McGrath have shown that this is absolutely not the case. Warne and McGrath are able to bowl with such precision and skill that the batsmen often find it very difficult to score. This creates a special kind of frustration in the batsmen in Twenty20 where a boundary is expected each over. Warne and McGrath are happy to let the 1s and 2s come by, and that irritates the batsmen even more. Every single taken is an opportunity for a boundary missed. This frustration eventually kills the batting side.

In yesterday’s Kings XI vs Mumbai Indians match, Bret Lee pulled what has been the closest to a miracle in the IPL. He bowled his 4 overs for JUST 9 RUNS! That’s an economy of 2.25 per over! Bret Lee literally strangled the Mumbai Indians killing them with their own frustration over their inability to score runs. Irfan Pathan even bowled a Maiden over!

The focus of bowling in the Twenty20 format is to prevent runs from being scored. Specifically, prevent boundaries from being scored. This is dramatically different from the ODI goal of taking wickets. Specialist bowlers have more tricks and more strategies and can focus on them exclusively in the Twenty20 format to choke the runs supply. The all-rounders simply don’t have the time and patience to put in that kind of thinking and strategy for the bowling. Consequently, they don’t do well. Symonds went for 6,4,6,4,6,4 in one of his overs against Sehwag.

This is quite a turn of events in the IPL. I think some of the teams and their think-tanks have been quick to realize the move towards specialization and are starting to select teams that way. Chennai are playing 2 wicketkeepers, Dhoni and Patel, which looks confusing at first, but Patel is being selected solely for his recent batting form. Ditto with McCullum.

Lets see how the teams adapt their strategies for this. This is going to be fun!