 "Shimron Hetmyer gets his bat inspected by the umpire during Rajasthan Royals' match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Image credit: X")
The afternoon game of the latest Sunday double header in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed Rajasthan Royals (RR) face Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Jaipur’s Sawai Man Singh Stadium, which hosted its first match of the season.
The result wasn’t quite what the home team and their fans would have hoped for, as blazing fifties by openers Phil Salt (65) and Virat Kohli (62 not out) ensured RCB chased down the 174-run target with nine wickets and two-and-a-half overs to spare, with Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 75 off 47 balls going in vain.
That afternoon game in Jaipur also a couple of unusual incidents, one that became something of a talking point on social media, with the umpire inspecting the bats of various batters including Shimron Hetmyer and Salt.
The umpires used a contraption on Hetmyer’s bat when he walked out to bat immediately after Jaiswal’s dismissal and followed suit for Salt and Devdutt Padikkal during Bengaluru’s chase later in the game.
Why did the umpires inspect bats during the RR-RCB game in Jaipur?
Simply put, the umpires were checking whether the bats used in the game complied with the IPL’s rules or not. Though the shortest format is one that is dominated heavily by batters and 250-plus scores have become all the more common since the introduction of the ‘Impact Player’ rule.
The IPL, however, ensures that the batters don’t have all the fun and that there is some balance between bat and ball by placing restrictions on the former’s size and dimensions, which are mentioned in section 5.7 of the IPL playing conditions.
Here’s a detailed look at section 5.7:
5.7.1 The overall length of the bat, when the lower portion of the handle is inserted, shall not be more than 38 in/96.52 cm.
5.7.2 The blade of the bat shall not exceed the following dimensions:
Width: 4.25in / 10.8 cm
Depth: 2.64in / 6.7 cm
Edges: 1.56in / 4.0cm.
Furthermore, it should also be able to pass through a bat gauge as described in paragraph 1.6 of
Appendix B.
5.7.3 The handle shall not exceed 52% of the overall length of the bat.
5.7.4 The material permitted for covering the blade in clause 5.4.1 shall not exceed 0.04 in/0.1 cm in
thickness.
5.7.5 The maximum permitted thickness of protective material placed on the toe of the blade is 0.12
in/0.3 cm.
It’s worth noting that while the umpires can bar batters from commencing their innings if their bats fail to meet the dimensions listed in the league’s rule-book, there is no official punishment for offenders in the IPL
That certainly isn’t the case in the County Championship in England, in which Essex had been docked 12 points in September last year after middle-order batter Feroze Khushi was found to have used a “wide” bat during a match against Nottinghamshire.