"If they come along more regularly even than British general elections to which Brenda produced her timeless reaction in 2017 they at least have more interesting results: the past five have had five different winners and the past three six different finalists. What's more, though not much time has passed since the last one ended with India beating South Africa in Barbados, it seems to have been long enough for the game to shift into a fresh and exhilarating new gear."
"It is too soon to be drawing conclusions about the state of the game in 2026, but in 21 T20 internationals in the first month of this year 6,960 runs were scored at 9.13 an over a massively higher scoring rate than any previous year. England scored at 9.91 an over in 2025, their best figure, and of the Test-playing nations only Bangladesh, who are not at the tournament, Australia and West Indies did not either break their run-scoring record in 2025."
"The record for batting strike rates in the Indian Premier League was broken in 2023, again in 2024 and again in 2025. The figure for this year's Big Bash was down slightly on last year's record, but still above every other year. The 2025 tournaments sit second in the rankings for Pakistan's PSL and the Caribbean Premier League in the West Indies, and first in Bangladesh's BPL and England's Blast."
Between 17 October 2021 and 8 March 2026 four T20 World Cups occurred within four years, four months and 19 days. The last five tournaments produced five different winners and the last three featured six different finalists. T20 scoring escalated sharply: 21 internationals in the first month of the year yielded 6,960 runs at 9.13 per over. England scored 9.91 per over in 2025. Most Test nations either broke run-scoring records in 2025 or were on course to do so. IPL batting strike-rate records fell in 2023, 2024 and 2025, while major franchise competitions posted historical highs. Successful 200-plus chases became more frequent.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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