By Admin 
A new rule has been seen in the India vs Australia ODI series. The International Cricket Council (ICC) can implement new rules for the wide ball, but this rule has been implemented temporarily in the India-Australia series. In fact, two new lines have been drawn on both sides of the stumps, from inside which the umpire cannot give a wide if the ball passes, even if the ball does not touch the batsman or bat while passing through the leg side, it will still be declared wide.
What is the new rule?
Earlier, apart from the wide line, there were only return crease lines on the pitch. But in the Sydney ODI match, apart from these, two different and new lines have been drawn, which are much closer to the stumps than wide. According to the new rule, if the ball passes through the leg side without touching the batsman, but is within the blue line, then the umpire cannot give it wide.
The old rule used to say that if the ball passed through the batsman’s leg side, he would be immediately given a wide, but this is no longer the case. Therefore, it is no longer necessary that just because the ball hits the leg side, the ball will be given a wide.
Has been used in TNPL
This new rule has been seen in the Indian domestic franchise league Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL). However, the new wide rule was temporarily implemented in that league also. It was seen in TNPL that due to the introduction of the new rule, there has been a huge reduction in the number of wides in the matches. If we look at the statistics, the number of wide balls in the 2024 edition of TNPL was 311, but it came down to 275 in the 2025 season.
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