MS Dhoni may have to change bat to stay within rules

NEW DELHI: Come October 1, all big hitters like David Warner, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and former Indian captain MS Dhoni will have to rethink their strategies before mauling the best bowlers in the business. The thick edges of their bats, which are loaded with wood towards the bottom, will now be limited to within 40mm under the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) guidelines issued in March this year, meaning these cricketers will all need new bats. An exception, however, will be India's skipper Virat Kohli, whose bat adheres to the new specifications. South Africa's AB de Villiers, Australia's Steve Smith and England's Joe Root also use bats with less than 40mm edges and won't need to change their gear. Starting from Australia's Warner to the West Indies' Gayle and Pollard, all of them have been using 50mm edges that helped them to bash bowlers to all parts of the park, especially in the shorter versions. Among the top Indian batsmen, Dhoni is the only cricketer who uses a bat with a 45mm edge. Interestingly, Pollard has already changed bats, telling reporters during the IPL that it "made no sense" to wait till October. Apart from Kohli, most other Indian cricketers barring Dhoni too use bats within the 40mm edge stipulation. KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara and newcomer Rishabh Pant have bat specifications similar to Kohli's. Among current Indian cricketers, Dhoni also uses the heaviest bat with a total weight between 1250gm to 1300gm bat, with a 12-inch sweet spot, which starts from four inches above the bottom of the bat to 16 inches. There is more mass and wood at the bottom of his bat. Comparatively, Kohli's bat is much lighter, weighing around 1160 gm with eight inches of sweet spot, which starts from six inches above the bottom of the bat to 14 inches. The mass of the bat is behind the sweet spot. India's ODI opener Rohit Sharma uses a 1160 to 1180 gm bat with 10 inches of sweet spot with an edge below 40mm.