Former England players Alastair Cook and Michael Vaughan recently in a podcast discussed what rules they would change in the game of cricket if they had a choice. Cook said that in Test cricket, the bowling team should be allowed to take the new ball any time they wished within 160 overs. The current rule mandates that a fresh ball can be used only after 80 overs.
“A new rule I would add would be, how about, in 160 overs, you can take the new ball whenever you want? You have got two new balls for those 160 overs, and you can take that second ball whenever you want. You could take one after 30 overs if you wanted to,” he said during the ‘Stick to Cricket’ podcast.
Vaughan bats for flexibility in substitutions
Vaughan, meanwhile, said that there should be a greater flexibility in substitutions in the game, adding that the game was lagging behind from other sports by restricting subs only in case of concussions.
To put across his point, he used the example of Rishabh Pant’s injury in the recant India vs England Test series where Pant had to bat with fracture while his replacement Dhruv Jurel could only replace him in wicket keeping duties.
“In the first innings of a game, let’s say Rishabh Pant takes a knock to his hand. He can still bat but can’t keep wickets. Under current rules, India can’t bring on another keeper like Dhruv Jurel unless it’s a concussion case,” Vaughan said.
👀 New balls, yellow cards and longer tea breaks 😅
What’s one law you would change in cricket? 🏏 pic.twitter.com/uvMc1z2ZZA
— Stick to Cricket (@StickToCricket) September 2, 2025
“We have concussion subs. So why don’t we have substitutes? All of the other sports have it – why are we allowing the game to be reduced in quality if someone gets a clip,” he added.
This isn’t even the first time Vaughan had batted for traditional substitute rules in cricket.
“I don’t like the fact that we’ve got four days left in the game, four days of action in what has been an incredible series where we are going to have 10 versus 11,” Vaughan had said to BBC Sports after Pant’s foot injury in the Manchester Test.
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“I prefer that you’d have a sub. You know, once they brought in concussion subs, I was crying out, saying, ‘Well, just have substitutions then in the first innings of a game.’ That would be my stepping point. If it happens in the second innings, I feel that team might kind of break the rules or indulge in a bit of skullduggery. But if it’s clear and obvious when someone breaks a hand or a foot or ruptures a calf it’s so evident that someone is in real pain and can’t carry on. I think it’s very clear to me: you should be allowed a sub,” Vaughan had said.
