Following a record-breaking number of high-scoring matches in the ongoing IPL season, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has proposed the introduction of a reward for bowlers.

In his column for Mid-Day, Gavaskar suggested that if a bowler takes three or more wickets in their allotted four overs, they should be permitted to bowl an extra over to help restore the balance between bat and ball.

“The restriction of only four overs to a bowler could be looked at again. If a batter can bat the entire 20 overs, why can’t a bowler who gets, say, three wickets in his four overs be allowed to bowl another over as a reward for getting those wickets? This way teams will also try getting wickets instead of trying only to save runs being scored. After all, the best dot ball is the wicket-taking dot ball, isn’t it? Yes, you could conceivably have three bowlers getting three wickets and an extra over each,” Gavaskar wrote.

“That would even up the playing field a fair bit in a format where just about everything is stacked against the bowlers. Look at the small boundaries, the strict interpretation of the wide for a bouncer going marginally over the batter’s head and such like. So, giving the bowlers and the fielding captain an incentive to take wickets and not just be defensive from the first ball, would be something worth trying out,” he added.

IPL 2026 has proved to be a nightmare for bowlers, defined by a high frequency of 200+ scores and an even higher success rate for chasing teams, often with the help of the Impact Player rule.

Gavaskar called for trialling the one-over bonus in domestic tournaments like the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy before implementing it in the IPL.

“As with every new playing condition, it can be trialled in the many city leagues that are coming up. Then, in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and then, if found that it does level a format which is more batting friendly then it could be used in the next year’s IPL or maybe in the next cycle of IPL starting from 2028,” he stated.