Marylebone Cricket Club guidelines: Big hitters Dhoni, Gayle may have to change bats

Aggressive stroke-makers like David Warner, Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and MS Dhoni won't find hitting sixes that easy as they would have to bring about a change in the dimensions of their bats under the new guidelines of the Marylebone Cricket Club effective from October 1.

The thick edges of their bats, which are heavy towards the bottom with lots of wood 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.