Wednesday, November 7, 2001 Bouncers are back, but pinch-hitters could be out. This Sharjah tournament showed us how one-day cricket will be played from now on, and the good news is that it is time to welcome back skill, courage, and fast reflexes.

International cricket can only benefit from evening up the tussle between batsman and bowler. The ban on bouncers was a major handicap for fast men, and allowed ordinary batsmen to take advantage. Pinch-hitters boldly committed themselves to the front foot and punished even the best bowlers without fear of a short-pitched delivery to bring them to their senses. This whizz-bang approach was great for spectators but so will be the return to the finer arts of batsmanship. Playing the rising ball, especially when it is angled in at the body, is a test of ability. Many front-foot bullies fall apart against the short stuff.

High-class fast bowlers will ruthlessly exploit this rule. It is no coincidence that Pakistan's pace attack looked venomous again in Sharjah. Wasim Akram is a prime example. He can now bang the ball in short of a length without fear of it rising into a no-ball. He can stop runs and pin the batsman on the back foot. This makes his yorker doubly effective. It suits Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar in the same way. In fact all the teams with the best pace bowlers will be better off. Australia and South Africa for sure, but also England. The no-bouncer rule brought teams closer together: now the top teams will be more consistent and the weaker ones will have to find genuine pace bowlers to compete.

This ability to bowl at the body was one of the reasons for West Indies' dominance over a decade ago. Even when their batsmen failed, their lethal pace attack could conjure a win. It certainly meant that you had to be thinking every ball and you could not get away with just lunging forward. You had to watch the ball and play the length. Against medium-pacers you can commit early to the front foot and still adjust to pull or cut when the ball is short. But that is a dangerous game against a genuinely quick bowler.

Take Sanath Jayasuriya, for example. He normally butchers bowlers in the first 15 overs. On a pitch like Sharjah, Pakistan's attack would have been at his mercy. But this time he was unable to launch the blistering attacks that we are used to. He had to alter the way he plays, and he is one of the most free-scoring batsmen of the modern game.

We have entered a new era of one-day cricket. That's how much difference a little rule change can make.

Javed Miandad, Pakistan's highest-scoring batsman and latterly their coach, was talking to Kamran Abbasi. His column appears at Wisden.com every Wednesday.

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