Over the years, cricket equipment has undergone radical changes in texture, size and outlook with the emergence of customised bats, helmets and protective gear.

Now, as cricket becomes more professional and stylised, some other accessories have made their appearance. Here’s a quick checklist of the new must-haves for today’s T20 teams:

•Half-bat: A modified version of a cricket bat, this used to reduce the load on coaches while hitting balls during catching practice. Now available in hardened plastic for greater height and speed.

•Baseball gloves: Every team now has more than a dozen baseball gloves — one for each player when they warm-up by throwing balls to each other in pairs.

•Plastic stumps: Easy to carry, they come with a spike or a platform at the base. The plastic is flexible, allowing hits without uprooting the stumps so that practice isn’t frequently disrupted.

•Bounce-pad: Used in close-catching, it comes in different shapes and sizes to vary the degree of unpredictability for fielders.

•Fielding net: A semi-circular net that is erected behind the stumps to collect all throws in the absence of a wicketkeeper.

•Big palm: Used by the Indian team, it is worn on the hand as a slip-catching tool to deflect throws towards the cordon of fielders.

•Boxing gloves: A new entrant in cricket, used by both physios and psychologists — to strengthen shoulder muscles and channelise aggression.

•Tennis racquet and balls: Used to help batsmen cope with greater pace and height, especially before a match on a bouncy pitch.

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