The International Cricket Council has confirmed that the forthcoming T20 World Cup will have the Decision Review System in play, making it officially the first men’s T20 World Cup to have the DRS technology available for teams to challenge the on-field call.
Each team at the T20 World Cup, running from October 17 to November 14 in Oman and the United Arabic Emirates, will have two unsuccessful reviews at hand per innings.
This is in accordance with one of ICC’s interim measures last year that an additional review will be available to teams during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Teams have been availing two reviews per innings in white-ball formats and three reviews before the 80-over mark in Tests (but unlike previously, no new reviews are given post the 80-over mark).
While DRS has been in use in international cricket since 2008 (back when it was called UDRS), the reason why no previous men’s T20 World Cup had it is that the review system was not in place for T20Is when the tournament’s previous edition was held in 2016.
Overall, the upcoming men’s T20 World Cup will be the third ICC T20I event to have the DRS in play after it was first brought into the playing conditions for the 2018 women’s competition in the Caribbean and then its 2020 edition in Australia.
The news on DRS will be a big relief for teams in the preliminary round where apart from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Ireland, there are five of the leading associates taking part as well. With only two vacant Super 12 slots up for grabs from respective preliminary groups, the last thing a Scotland or the Netherlands would want is to miss out on a decision that could cost them more playing opportunities and extra exposure.
Scotland infamously lost out on a decisive win against West Indies at the qualifier for the 2019WC after a plumb LBW was not given on the field and it resulted in an unfavourable DLS reading of the situation for them after rain. If DRS was available, they may have played the 10-team World Cup at the expense of West Indies.
Meanwhile, in another important tweak to the playing conditions, the ICC has decided to increase the minimum overs required for a game to have a result in cases of delayed and rain-interrupted matches. While the preliminary round and Super 12 stage will still have the minimum five-over requirement for DLS to come into play, teams will now have to bat at least 10 overs in the semis and the final to effect a result.
