Sachin Tendulkar explains what's holding back the ODI format, puts forward his suggestion on how to revive it

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has once again urged the decision makers to work on the revival of ODIs - the format he feels is getting held back because of lack of balance between the bat and ball. Master Blaster Sachin, who will turn 50 on April 24th, has lamented the lack of advantages for bowlers as the reason for slow-death of One-Dayers.

As quoted by ESPNcricinfo, Sachin, while interacting with a few journalists, said considering all formats are very different, ODI still needs to be worked upon first, just for it longegivity. Sachin added with the ODIs favouring batters too much, this format is not exciting as it used to be.

"I feel all three formats are completely different. Somewhere I do feel [that in the] one-day format, people need to have a look at it closely," Sachin told journalists. "I feel there is an imbalance between the bat and the ball. It is too much in favour of the batters at this point."

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The Indian legend is not a fan of two new balls in ODIs as he feels it kills the chance of reverse swing or the discolouration of the ball - something that used to work in bowler's favour back in the day. Explaining this, Sachin said the batters used top find it hard to pick the ball due to same reasons, which was a challenge in itself.

The former right-handed batter added such little elements are missing from the game, and because of which, the bowlers suffer in the end.

"With two new balls, even in the 25th over, the ball is literally 12 or 13 overs old. There is no such thing as reverse swing, or the discolouration of the ball, or the ball becoming soft. These factors really put a lot of pressure on the bowling side. There were challenges [for batters] where one did not pick the ball because of the discolouration. That was an advantage for a bowler.

"And with field restrictions, we need to balance that out. Give some advantage to the bowlers as well. I find that element missing in ODI cricket right now," Sachin added.

Other than in batting, Sachin achieved some milestones as a bowler too, and feels because of this rule of having five fielders inside the ring between 11-40th over, the spinners, in general, have gone defensive with their lines; as a result, they are unable to create the difference.

"Also, with the introduction of five fielders in the ring… I was speaking to a lot of spinners, and the overall opinion is that 'we cannot change our line'," he said. "If an offspinner is bowling, he is forced to bowl a middle-stump line. Because you either have to have your deep point in the ring or you need to bring in the long-off because on the on side, you have three fielders in the deep and here you can have only one fielder in the deep.

"So they cannot deceive a batter by getting him to play a cover drive. The overall opinion is that 'we have to kind of settle for a defensive line'. I would say that some adjustments need to be made," Sachin suggested.