Return of the Yorker. 

Cricket fans of a certain vintage would recall the toe-crushers the great speedsters would send down to thwart the aggressive ambitions of batsmen towards the end of an ODI innings. Even the knowledge of what was coming was often no defence against the yorker barrage. And then the yorker largely disappeared from the game. The combination of rule changes, big bats, small grounds and the relative decline in bowling quality made even batsmen of limited skill look speedsters in the eye, especially in the T20 format. Hence, it’s with some relief that genuine cricket lovers welcomed the return of the yorker during the 2025 Indian Premier League.

At the start of the season, it seemed that the trend of tall scores, seen last year, was set to continue. Not allowing the application of saliva on the ball has made the shortest format heavily skewed in the batsmen’s favour. But the return of the yorker has redressed the balance, to an extent. Mitchell Starc, Avesh Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have already bowled more yorkers in this edition than they did in 2024. Prasidh Krishna has also had success with toe-crushers. There have been some excellent practitioners of the yorker in recent times — Jasprit Bumrah and Starc come to mind — but other bowlers have also stepped up this IPL.

Allowing saliva on the ball has definitely helped the bowlers get late swing, but hard work and focus on getting this delivery right has played a part too. A perfect yorker is still almost impossible to hit too far, but it requires pace, accuracy and a lot of physical strength. A bowler also needs nerve and conviction as getting it even slightly wrong can either result in a “slot ball” — the one easiest to hit for a six — or a full toss. This has forced bowlers to delve into the varieties of slower deliveries. But there is no sight more thrilling in cricket than stumps flying out of the ground, which a genuine yorker can provide.