MS Dhoni casually twirled his bat as he walked towards his paꦬrtner. Kapil Dev couldn’t contain his joy and burst into tears on live television. The crowd in the Wankhede Stadium was going crazy. On the streets, people were in celebration mode. India had won the World Cup. They had waited 28 years for this moment.

Before the 1983 tournament, part of India loved football, a premier sport in Kolkata, and hockey. India had won seven of eight gold medals at the Olympics at one stage. Kapil Dev’s catch to dismiss Viv Richards in 1983 did not just win India the World Cup. It changed the sport forever.💧 Overnight all sports in India took a back seat and cricket became the premier sport. A superpower was ⛄born.

how odi cricket has changed

Changes in playing conditions

In 2011, ODI cricket seemed to be losing relevance. The 2007 edition of the ODI World Cup did not help. Poor crowds, overpriced tickets and a lack of atmosphere at matches left many feeling that the format was on its way out, soon to be replaced by T20 cricket. With the IPL gainin𝔉g traction, it was not an unreasonable assumption. Then Dhoni hit the six that breathed new 𓃲life into the format.

A lot ha꧒s changed since Dhoni’s tournament-winning maximum. In 2011, umpires changed balls at their discretion. Around the 35th or 36th over, the umpires took a look at the discoloured and spongey ball and made the call on whether or not to replace it with a less abused ball. Playing with only one ball brought reverse swing into the equation in the second half of the innings and doosra-bowling mystery spinners made use of the battered single ball and bamboozled batters.

Evolution of powerplays

All that has fallen away. In October 2011, the ICC adopted the use of two new balls as a cure for the white ball getting discoloured and becoming soft after 30 overs or so. The trade-off for this has been the disappearance of reverse swing from the format. The crackdown on suspect bowling actions led to the removal of many of the world’s most effective spinners from the format.

In the 2011 tournament in India, teams were wrestling with three🍌 powerplays per innings, including both a batting and a bowling powerplay that the two teams could choose when to deploy. In 2015, new rules we♚re set. The whole innings was going to be in three phases. The first ten overs, with only two fielders outside the inner circle, with overs from 11 to 40 overs being the middle overs before the death overs where four fielders will be outside the circle. In 2019, the batting powerplay was dispensed with, and five fielders were allowed outside the ring for the last ten overs.

Tactical shifts: Separation of cricket formats

In 2011, ODI cricket🗹 was seen as a slightly faster version of Test cricket, while T20 cricket was seen as a shorter version of ODI cricket. As far as many cricketers were concerned the same tactics, practice and mentality that made them successful in Test cricket would make them successful in ODI and T20 cricket. 2015 saw the first signs of separation between formats. We saw not only white ball specialists, but sometimes players good at just ODI or T20. 

As white ball cricket defined its own parameters, batters became more attacking. Wh💧at constitutes a ‘good score’ has changed in the years since the 2011 showcase. Totals that looked impossible now seem within reach.

Batting dynamics: From test match mindset to aggressive play

From 1971 (the year the first ODI  was played) to the 2011 World Cup, ODI cricket witnessed nine totals of 400 or more runs. As the format changed, in part because of England’s 2015 group stage exit that forced them to shift their approach – which in turn inspired everyone else to be uber-aggressive – teams have scored 15 totals north of 400. Two of them have been more than 450 and one almost breached the 500 mark.

Scoring trends and the impact of T20 on ODI

Teams at the 2011 World Cup averaged 29.18 runs at a strike rate of 5.03, at the 2015 World Cup they were on 32.91 at a rate of 5.65 runs an over, and in 2019 scored at an average of 33.30 at 5.59 runs an over. Much of this change has been driven by the rise of T20 leagues. Quick scoring is not the only thing that ODIs have adopted from T20 cricket. T20 teams started to employ more powerplay spin bow🐓lers to counter the onslaught in the first six overs. ODI cricket is now adopting the same ploy. More spinners are bowling in the first 10 overs.

The surge of powerplay spinners

MS Dhoni will be the first to admit that the format that made him a legend has changed si💦nce he hit the cup-winning maximum. Kapil Dev, on the other hand, can scarcely recognize it after all the changes it has undergone since he last played.

India’s quest for ODI greatness in 2023

But, despite all these changes to the format, from the 2023 Cricket World Cup hosts’ perspective, ODI cricket seems to be exactly where it was in 2011. India n𝓀eeds a new hero. Indian fans do not want to wait another 28 years to bask in the glory🎶 of success. They need someone to grab the baton from MS Dhoni, who took it from Kapil Dev, and inspire India into a new era of greatness, and possibly breathe new life into the third favourite format. 

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With over 10 years of experience in the sports media industry, I am a passionate and versatile media entrepreneur and sports analyst. I also founded Good Areas, a network of podcasts, YouTube channels, and emailers that focus on how fans like sport, and that tell stories beyond the mainstream. You can follow Jarrod at Twitter (), Youtube (), Linkedin (), and Instagram ().