'50 Overs is Just Bit Too Long Now'- Usman Khawaja Suggests to Trim ODIs to 40 Overs

Australia batter Usman Khawaja recently opined on the relevance of ODI cricket in present times. He believes that the 50-over-a-side One-day International cricket should be trimmed to a 40-over-a-side format to make it more interesting in the wake of the growing popularity of T20 cricket.

“50 overs is just that little bit too long now. Take out that little middle bit, you’d get to 25 overs and you’d look up and ‘oh crap, there are only 15 overs left, let’s go again

‘"So you don’t have that little lull. That’s my only objection to one-day cricket," told Khwaja on ABC Sport.

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On the same, leg-spinner Adam Zampa also agreed with Khawaja’s observation and said that either the 50-over cricket can be completely scrapped or some  adjustments can make it relevant again.

Zampa said, "(They) either need to be scrapped or something needs to be done with them."

"Bonuses or extra free hits or something, make it a bit more interesting," he further suggested.

However, left-arm spinner Ashton Agar, who represented Australia in 46 T20Is and 18 ODIs had a different opinion about the ODI format as he said that 50 overs was "just enough time to do enough".

"Ten overs is a lovely amount of bowling time, 50 overs is a good time to bat; it gives guys down the order a bit of time if a few wickets have fallen

"I think people get frustrated that maybe it takes a bit too long, but I think that’s just because of the advent of T20 cricket. I like ODI cricket," Agar said.

There are quite a lot of international cricketers who have supported ODI cricket and one of them is wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who said "there’s still lots of room in the game for one-day cricket for sure".

While there have been quite a few interesting suggestions made by cricketers to make the format more relevant and one such is given by Australia Test off-spinner Nathan Lyon. He suggested that using one ball from both ends can make  it create a level playing field for both batters and bowlers. "I’d love to see one ball come back into it

"One ball from both ends, stop giving batters a brand new ball to hit. I’d like to see (them) bring reverse swing, bring spin back into it," Lyon said.

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