'Be fearless, don't worry about getting out' - Will we see the first 300 total at a T20 World Cup?

Will this be the tournament where 300 is scored for the first time at a T20 World Cup?

It is no longer a fantastical question. Batters have been scoring at supersonic speeds in the past few years. There have been five 300-plus totals in men's T20s, and three in T20Is, with the most recent instance coming last year when Phil Salt and Jos Buttler broke records against South Africa in Manchester. The Salt-Buttler blitz was breathtaking but not one-of-a-kind. India have threatened 300 more than once in the last two years, and fell short by three runs against Bangladesh in Hyderabad.

Having said that, the highest total at a T20 World Cup is now nearly 20 years old: Sri Lanka's 260 for 6 against Kenya in the first tournament in 2007. But with grounds in both India and Sri Lanka - the co-hosts for this World Cup - on the smaller side, coupled with fast outfields and the potential for dew, teams acknowledge that 300 is no longer too big a mountain to scale.

England's white-ball captain Harry Brook, counted among the best power-hitters in world cricket, feels 300 is possible at this T20 World Cup. "There's plenty of grounds in India where there could be a score of 300-plus," Brook said at the pre-tournament captains' media briefing on Thursday. "The wickets look like they're quite good wickets at the minute: rapid outfields and fairly short boundaries. So yeah, you've just got to go out there and be fearless, like you said, and don't worry about getting out and just keep on trying to take the balls on as much as possible."

As the mindset of the batter has become more daring, several early tenets of T20 batting have been broken. The anchor is a liability now, with teams stacking batting line-ups with allrounders. Another recent trend is that match-ups are considered a lesser threat. Even if a batter has an Achilles heel, he is encouraged to go after the bowler whose skillset might, in the past, have made him play safe.

On Wednesday evening in Navi Mumbai, Ishan Kishan skilfully and calmly hit South Africa's Anrich Nortje for 6, 6, 4, 6, utilising his extreme pace to his advantage. Nortje's captain, Aiden Markram, rushed to his biowler's side to reset fields after almost each of those balls. It made no difference. Markram says he has noticed a new trend emerging, where batters are dominating over a smaller "group" of balls.

"The game, it's moving forward quickly nowadays," Markram said on Thursdsay. "Probably got to a stage where you are not looking at winning overs, but probably just small groups of balls really. At the end of the game, I think grouping out a couple of good balls together makes a big difference. So you feel sorry for the bowlers.

"It's not an easy gig, especially when you get on, or get to a country where the wickets are really, really good, boundaries can be a little bit smaller and the batters really enjoy themselves. So it's a nice opportunity and challenge, though, for the bowlers - that's how our unit sees it and they're going to take that challenge on. The odds are probably stacked against them, but they're going to focus on the challenge and get into the battle and see where they end up."

The boundary-per-ball (BpB) numbers provide a picture on the change in the batters' intent between the last two T20 World Cups. Between the 2022 and 2024 tournaments, the BpB in all T20s was 7.24, and 5.67 for only Full Member countries. The corresponding figures between the 2024 edition and this one are 7.11 (overall) and 5.59 (FMs only). Teams stacked with power-hitters are making it normal to score nearly 100 in the first six overs. Between 2024 T20 World Cup and now, the powerplay run rate in T20Is between 12 Full Member countries has moved up from 8.29 to 8.62 (based on available ball-by-ball data).

As captain, Brook felt it was important to keep calm while batters went on a rampage. "You've got to stay with a cool head as much as you possibly can, and try and slow the game down in specific moments, and speed the game up when you think you're on top. But yeah, you've just got to try and be as calm as possible and make your bowlers as calm as possible as well."

Sitting to Brook's right was Afghanistan talisman Rashid Khan, perhaps the best T20 bowler of the past decade. Is it possible for him to stay calm, then, even as batters ransack runs in hospitable conditions, against a Kookaburra that loses its potency pretty quicky?

"As a bowler, you can't really think about [teams] scoring 200 and 300 and have it [play on your] mind. If you accept that, it's going to happen," Rashid said. "I never accept that the team is going to score 200. You always come with a positive mindset of restricting [the total] as low as possible. And if you keep that energy around the group, that you're going to score 250 or 300, trust me - it's going to happen… That's where the experience comes in. When the conditions are not much in your favour, you bring your skills into the game."

According to Rashid, many teams have been impacted significantly by the toss in recent years, because chasing often offers a massive advantage. "In the last four-five years, I have seen lots of players decide the game with the toss a lot. And they think about: if you win the toss, you win the game. And I think they just take the skills out of the game. You practice around three-four hours, they don't believe and trust that. Me, myself, I trust that and not the toss. That's more important than anything else.

"If you bowl a good yorker, anyone in the world will not hit it for six. If you are bowling into the stumps and in good areas, I don't think you're going to be hit four or five sixes in a row. You're going to get the right result. But if you're bowling badly, definitely anyone can punish you. But it's all up to you, how you want to manage your deliveries - six balls, 24 balls - and what are the best deliveries that you can bowl to the batsmen, and what are the options where you can get the right results.

"So I trust that and I believe that. Some days you get hit, maybe you score 200, but most of the time you will restrict the team under 180, 170."

It is not an easy job, though, to keep your bearings while batters tonk sixes and fours. Sitting next to Markram was India captain Suryakumar Yadav, who can manipulate fields like Buttler without actually blasting the ball. With his hands folded on the table, Suryakumar laughed and nodded while Markram was making his point.

"The game is actually moving very fast," he said. "It is harsh on bowlers, yes, but we can't do anything. I'm happy that I'm a batter, but I do feel for my bowlers and other bowlers as well. But yeah, people are trying to seize the moments in the game, enjoying it, becoming more fearless. And obviously, good entertainment for the crowd coming in."