• Source:JND
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PBKS vs KKR IPL 2025: Kolkata Knight Riders' star opener Sunil Narine and pacer Anrich Nortje failed the bat size test in their humiliating loss against Punjab Kings on Tuesday. Both Narine and Nortje were asked to change their bats before walking into bat. The KKR duo became the first players to have failed the bat size checks during the ongoing season.

Although the bat size checks were quite common during the previous season, the BCCI started on-field tests to make sure that the tests were being done fairly. Since batters usually carry more than one bat, it's not like the bat that they bring with them to the field might have cleared the mandatory bat size check.

Since Narine's bat was oversized before the chase even began, he was seen standing along with Angkrish Raghuvanshi near the boundary rope, where the bat size was being held. Reserve umpire Sayed Khalid was suspicious of Narine's bat. Although, his bat did pass the house-shaped bat gauge smoothly, but didn't fit through the frame.

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A video of the reserve umpire checking Narine and Raghuvanshi's bat had also gone viral.

Watch the video here:

Narine was thus then told to change his bat before coming to open the innings. But he could score just five runs and was thus bowled by left-arm fast bowler Marco Jansen during the first over itself.

Anrich Nortje's bat was also checked by the on-field umpire when he came into bat during the 16th over. The Ajinkya Rahane-led side were reeling at 95/9, when Nortje, who was playing his debut match for KKR, came into bat after failing the mandatory size-check test. He too was told to replace his bat and the cameraman showed Rahmanullah Gurbaz running with another after Nortje's first bat failed the test.

But, Nortje didn't get a chance to use the new bat and was struck on the non-striker's end as the Kolkata-based franchise had lost their last wicket as Andre Rusell was dismissed on the first ball of the 16th over.

They suffered a batting collapse and were skittled out for just 95 runs as Punjab Kings scripted history by creating a new record for successfully defending the lowest total during an IPL match.

Earlier this month, lots of batters like Hardik Pandya, Phil Salt, and Shimron Hetmyers' bats were also checked by the on-field umpires.

The lower part of the bat is often changed as extra mass is added to the sweet spot as that is the area which faces the ball the most.

As per the IPL rules, "The blade of the bat must not exceed the following dimensions - Width: 4.25 in / 10.8 cm, Depth: 2.64 in / 6.7 cm, Edge: 1.56 in / 4.0 cm. Moreover, it must be able to pass through a bat gauge."

It should be noted here that Rajasthan Royals' star all-rounder Nitish Rana reckoned that the players are okay with getting their bats checked and revealed that a lot of use equipment which are provided directly by the manufacturers.

"There's limited time in T20 cricket, but if the umpires have time to check the bats, then I believe they're within their rights to do so. Not just Hetty's (Shimron Hetmyer's), but my bat was checked too. Almost 60 to 70 percent of the batters had their bats inspected. We have no control over it - the bats we use come straight from sponsors or manufacturers, so if the officials want to check them, we've got no issues," Rana said.