Cricket: Bowlers losing grip on game

Why would anyone want to be a bowler?

Power-hitters are being handed bigger bats, boundary ropes are dragged in, fielding restrictions hamper you further and flat pitches worldwide offer nothing - no matter how much you bend your back.

Targets of 300 or more have been set in each of the three India-Australia ODIs to date - and they've twice been chased down, breaking records along the way.

The dire scenario for bowlers even prompted India's captain and precision slogger MS Dhoni to joke that there might be no place for them in the future.

Dhoni struck a thunderous 139 not out off 121 balls in the third game at Mohali and fresh in his mind would've been the brutal, match-winning 64 off 29 balls from Australian allrounder James Faulkner, which was key to the tourists chasing down the target of 304 with three balls to spare for a 2-1 series lead.

But when asked if he had any changes he would make in light of the recent struggles of bowlers from both teams this series, with a wicked grin Dhoni said: "I think only two bowlers should play, all batsmen should play and the part-timers should bowl."

Even someone who takes such delight in clearing the fences can see the negative impact it is having on the game's current and future bowling stocks.

So can former Australian captain Ian Chappell, who has urged administrators to "offer bowlers a crumb" or be witness to a revolution akin to Bodyline.

"In the short form of the game there's a chance bowlers will become an endangered species if the trend for heavier [and better] bats and shorter boundaries continues," Chappell wrote in his column for the Hindustan Times.

" ... You can't blame the bowlers for thinking they're being served up as cannon fodder for the pampered batsmen."

- AAP