The BCCI’s decision to carry out on-field inspections of players’ bats has become a major talking point in IPL-2025 since Sunday, when bat checks were conducted on the field of play during the Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) game and the Delhi Capitals (DC) vs Mumbai Indians (MI) match. Pictures of MI skipper Hardik Pandya’s bat undergoing a check went viral on social media, though a source confirmed that all MI players’ bats were found to be compliant.
However, on Tuesday, ‘history’ was made when the bats of two Kolkata Knight Riders players—opener Sunil Narine and No. 11 Anrich Nortje—failed the ‘gauge test’ as they walked out to the middle. Narine and Nortje are among the first players to fail the bat size checks in the IPL this year, introduced recently by the BCCI to restore the balance between bat and ball.
Narine’s bat was found to be oversized before the start of KKR‘s unsuccessful chase of PBKS’s 111 by reserve umpire Saiyed Khalid outside the playing arena. In a video that has gone viral on social media since Tuesday night, Narine can be seen standing alongside Angkrish Raghuvanshi near the dugout as the bat size was being checked by reserve umpire Sayed Khalid. While Raghuvanshi’s bat passed through the ‘house-shaped’ bat gauge comfortably, Narine’s did not fit. Narine was eventually forced to change his bat, and perhaps distracted by this development, the West Indian all-rounder was bowled by left-arm pacer Marco Jansen for just five.
Making his debut for KKR, Nortje walked out to bat when KKR were struggling at 95 for nine in the 16th over. His bat size also failed the mandatory size check. However, Nortje didn’t get an opportunity to use his new bat as he was stranded at the non-striker’s end when Andre Russell was bowled by Jansen off the first ball of the 16th over.
Playing down the issue in the pre-match conference at the Wankhede Stadium before his team’s match against the Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori said on Wednesday, “I wish they’d checked the bats when I was playing! No, I don’t think it makes any difference. I think the guys get tested regularly. The umpires go through the dressing rooms a lot of the time, so guys know that their bats are compliant, so it’s just a quick one second, and everyone moves on, I think. So, I think it’ll reset anyone trying to have a bigger bat, but I think it’s pretty easy to get your bat through that cage.”
The former New Zealand left-arm spinner said that better bats were “a part of the evolution in the game.” “I suppose the way that bats have been able to get bigger without an increase in weight, that’s a skill to the bat manufacturers and a demand for what batting groups or batters want these days. So, I think it’s just part of the game, part of evolution.”
Will bat sizes be reduced in the future to give bowlers more of a chance in the game? “I mean, everyone seems to enjoy sixes and fours, so I don’t think we’re going to get a reduction in bat size and it doesn’t really worry me,” Vettori said.
However, Paras Anand, CEO of Meerut-based Sanspareils Greenlands (SG), a well-known bat manufacturer, feels that the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodians of the laws of the game, and the ICC must look at making other changes in the game to restore balance, rather than just being strict on the dimensions of the bats. “Modern-day players practice hitting sixes. Cricket is not what it was 15 years ago. You would not have seen a Sachin Tendulkar or a Rahul Dravid thrashing the ball in the nets like the current generation of batsmen do these days. Yes, it’s important to maintain the balance of the bat and ball. However, there are other ways of doing that, like churning out sporting pitches, using a ball that perhaps swings a bit more, or increasing the size of the ground, rather than just reducing the dimensions of the bat by one or two millimetres. Believe me, one or two mm here and there don’t make much of a difference. Those batters who hit sixes will continue doing so even with a different bat,” Anand told TOI.
Poll
Do you support the BCCI’s decision to conduct on-field inspections of players’ bats?
“A few years back (in 2016), the MCC had declared that from October 2017, the thickness of professional cricket bats would be limited to a maximum of 108mm width, 67mm depth and 40mm edges, after David Warner’s bat was found to have a depth of 85mm. Did it bring down the number of sixes?” he added.
While bat size checks in the dressing room have been common practice in previous IPL seasons, the BCCI introduced on-field inspections to ensure greater vigilance, as batters often carry multiple bats. It was not always guaranteed that the bat brought onto the field was the one that had passed the mandatory check.
According to the rules, the width of the bat face should not exceed 10.79cm, the thickness of the blade shouldn’t be more than 6.7cm, and the width of the edge of the bat cannot be more than 4cm. The length of the bat should not exceed 96.4cm.
Who’s that IPL player?
According to the IPL rulebook: “The blade of the bat must not exceed the following dimensions – Width: 4.25 in / 10.8 cm, Depth: 2.64 in / 6.7 cm, Edge: 1.56 in / 4.0 cm. Moreover, it must be able to pass through a bat gauge.”
Speaking on his YouTube channel called ‘Umpire’s call by Anil Chaudhary’ and his Instagram handle, Anil Chaudhary, who has umpired in a record 131 IPL matches, said, “Normally, the fourth umpire used to check the bats of the players with the help of the team manager. Normally, a batsman used five to six bats. However, it seems that someone has used a bat which was not of the permitted size. Now, the fourth umpire checks all the bats with the gauge. Since the dugouts are far off in the ground these days, the on-field umpire does this. This will help in the game’s integrity and transparency. The bat must go through this gauge. Earlier, we used to check the ball randomly, but now all the bats which will be used in the middle will be checked.”
Get the latest IPL 2025 updates on Times of India, including match schedules, team squads, points table and IPL live score for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Don’t miss the list of players in the race for IPL Orange Cap and IPL Purple cap.
