This is how modern cricket bats are designed, with the bulk of the wood located in the “sweet spot”.
In fact they have undergone a similar evolution. You can see that in the variations history on the Wikipedia page [0], as well as the photo of the old bats versus modern ones [1].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_bat#Variations
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_bat#/media/File%3AHi...
