IPL 2019: AB de Villiers comes up with an innovative idea to remove toss advantage in T20

What's the news?

AB de Villiers has come up with a new idea of playing best of three series of five overs instead of 20 overs each.

In case you didn't know

Recently, the match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals was reduced to five overs each due to rain. Eventually, even that mini-match could not be completed due to rain.

Heart of the matter

The South African superstar got this idea during the abandoned match vs RR. In his column in the Times of India, the 35-year-old proposed a new and shorter format to play the game.

“The structure of the tournament would remain exactly the same as, say, the IPL except that each fixture would feature a squad of 15 players contesting a best-of-three series of ‘Fives’, rather than playing a single 20/20 match,” de Villiers wrote.

He claimed that this new format can increase the excitement level of fans as they will see more fours and sixes. This format can also ensure that the effect of the toss can be reduced.

“Possible advantages include sustained excitement with each batsman trying to hit every ball out of the park, the chance for supporters to see every member of the squad in action and a significant reduction of an advantage in winning the toss." The 35-year-old claimed

In this format, the team winning the toss can elect to bat first or second in the first match. Then before the second match, the teams can shuffle their line ups and then other teams would get the right to elect to bat or bowl first.

“If Team A won the toss, they would decide whether to bat or bowl first in the opening five-overs-per-side match; each side could then shuffle their line-up for Match 2, and Team B would automatically have the right to choose whether to bat or bowl. If the next fixture was level at 1-1 after two games, a new toss would be held before what would be the deciding third match, with five overs per side.” ABD explained the format.

What's next?

ABD said that it would be exciting if some board goes on to implement his idea in future.