Shouldn't the revised target take account of the quality of the players at the crease when play is stopped an

Answer 1

No, the quality of players should not get incorporated into D/Lcalculations, as that would then punish the side that is in the stronger position before the delay.

If you make the target lower because there are 2 tail enders at the crease, it punishes the good work the bowling side has done in dismissing all of the top batsmen, and favours the batting side even though they are batting poorly.

If you increase the target because there are 2 top order players in, it punishes the batting side for a strong performance in maintaining wickets, and rewards the bowling side for bad bowling.

Answer 2

Although it is quite true that the extent to which the effective resources of the batting and bowling sides are depleted by a stoppage depends on the identities of the individual players affected, there is no way in which such factors could be incorporated into an objective rule for revising targets. It would require both teams to identify, before every match, the way the total quality of their sides, in respect of both batting and bowling, is divided between the individual team members. Furthermore, it would be necessary to input details of who was still to bowl and to bat and perform the calculation based on this before a revised target can be computed. As well as leading to contention, such a procedure would be quite impractical to implement.