Two men behind square is the quietest rule in cricket

Everyone argues about circles and powerplays while a much older restriction quietly decides how much short bowling is possible.

Only two fielders are allowed behind square on the leg side. That is the whole thing. One sentence in the playing conditions, and it shapes how fast bowlers operate in white ball cricket more than any circle painted on the grass.

Think about what a bowling captain actually wants when he goes short. He wants deep square leg. He wants fine leg. Ideally he wants a man at deep backward square as well, because the three productive shots off a well directed bouncer travel to three different parts of that arc. He gets two. So every short ball plan is really a decision about which boundary to concede, and any batter with a scoring map knows which one it is before the run up starts.

That constraint is why the wide yorker survived so long as the default death delivery, and why the slower bouncer became fashionable rather than the fast one. A fast bouncer with two men back is a decent ball. A slower bouncer with two men back is a better one, because it takes the batter's timing away and makes the mishit more likely to drop short of the two riders you were permitted.

I would argue the restriction is also the main reason left arm angle is worth so much. From over the wicket to a right hander, the short ball goes across into the off side, where the captain may post as many fielders as he likes. Same delivery, legal field behind it. That is a structural edge, and it is undervalued next to the endless discussion of who bowls the best yorker.

Would I change the rule? No, and here I part company with people who want more freedom for bowlers. The restriction exists because a leg side field with four men back is how you bowl at somebody's ribs for an hour with no intention of getting him out, and that was a genuinely miserable version of the sport. The rule is doing real work.

But I would like commentary to name it. When a bowler goes short twice and gets pulled for six, the failure is usually not execution. He had two fielders where the shot needed three, and the batter counted them from the crease before the ball was ever bowled.