IPL 2025 bat size row: Sunil Narine, Anrich Nortje fail ‘gauge take a look at’ in PBKS vs KKR game | Cricket News

KKR batters Sunil Narine and Narich Nortje failed the ‘gauge take a look at’ throughout their match towards Punjab Kings. (Screengrabs)

The BCCI’s determination to hold out on-field inspections of gamers’ bats has grow to be a serious speaking level in IPL-2025 since Sunday, when bat checks have been carried out on the sphere of play through 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 present process a test went viral on social media, although a supply confirmed that each one MI gamers’ bats have been discovered to be compliant.
However, on Tuesday, ‘historical past’ was made when the bats of two Kolkata Knight Riders gamers—opener Sunil Narine and No. 11 Anrich Nortje—failed the ‘gauge take a look at’ as they walked out to the center. Narine and Nortje are among the many first gamers to fail the bat size checks in the IPL this 12 months, launched just lately by the BCCI to revive the steadiness between bat and ball.

Narine’s bat was discovered to be outsized earlier than the beginning of KKR‘s unsuccessful chase of PBKS’s 111 by reserve umpire Saiyed Khalid outdoors the enjoying enviornment. In a video that has gone viral on social media since Tuesday evening, Narine may be seen standing alongside Angkrish Raghuvanshi close to the dugout because the bat size was being checked by reserve umpire Sayed Khalid. While Raghuvanshi’s bat handed via the ‘house-shaped’ bat gauge comfortably, Narine’s didn’t match. Narine was ultimately pressured to alter his bat, and maybe distracted by this improvement, the West Indian all-rounder was bowled by left-arm pacer Marco Jansen for simply 5.
Making his debut for KKR, Nortje walked out to bat when KKR have been struggling at 95 for 9 in the sixteenth over. His bat size additionally failed the necessary size test. However, Nortje didn’t get a chance to make use of his new bat as he was stranded on the non-striker’s finish when Andre Russell was bowled by Jansen off the primary ball of the sixteenth over.
Playing down the difficulty in the pre-match convention on the Wankhede Stadium earlier than his staff’s match towards the Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Daniel Vettori mentioned 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 mentioned that higher bats have been “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 diminished in the long run to present bowlers extra of an opportunity 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 mentioned.
However, Paras Anand, CEO of Meerut-based Sanspareils Greenlands (SG), a widely known bat producer, feels that the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the custodians of the legal guidelines of the game, and the ICC should take a look at making different modifications in the game to revive steadiness, relatively than simply being strict on the scale 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 informed TOI.

“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 frequent follow in earlier IPL seasons, the BCCI launched on-field inspections to make sure larger vigilance, as batters typically carry a number of bats. It was not at all times assured that the bat introduced onto the sphere was the one which had handed the necessary test.
According to the foundations, the width of the bat face shouldn’t exceed 10.79cm, the thickness of the blade should not be greater than 6.7cm, and the width of the sting of the bat can’t be greater than 4cm. The size of the bat shouldn’t exceed 96.4cm.
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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 known as ‘Umpire’s name by Anil Chaudhary’ and his Instagram deal with, Anil Chaudhary, who has umpired in a document 131 IPL matches, mentioned, “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.”