What an extraordinary few days these have been for Test cricket! Just while it seemed like Australia would succumb to the once-upon-a-time seemingly more balanced Englishmen, the Ashes have been swept away in a hurry and the Roos are now looking at a whitewash. England meanwhile have suffered many a high profile casualty in the ongoing Ashes war. If Jonathan Trott left for home on a temporary hiatus from competitive cricket, Graeme Swann has gone one step further in saying he'll never ever play the game again. That's two of England's finest gone, and the tour is only 60% done.
Few thousand miles away in the same Hemisphere meanwhile, the underdogs (funny when you consider ICC ranks them No. 2 in the world) nearly conquered the Proteas in their own savannas. Buoyed by the return of wily old Zaheer, the Indian Test team did what the world champion ODI team couldn't do - last a whole game against South Africa without being defeated.
Whoever once thought Test cricket obsolete surely is rolling in the mud right now. Never before have draws added so much of excitement to the game. And never before have draws been as desirable to the spectator as they have been of late. In fact, T20 didn't endanger Test match cricket. If anything, it only enhanced it. Is it a strange coincidence then that the number of Test matches ending with a result has only increased since the advent of T20?
While the classic connoisseur might squirm at the very mention of Twenty20, what he doesn't realize is that the little baby of world cricket has only made better that which gave birth to it. The new age batsman, unlike his monotonous Test-playing forefather, is not just brash and daring but also far more capable of adapting to situations. Only so would you find that Rahul Dravid's heir apparent Cheteshwar Pujara is able to strike boundaries when he so wills it, even as he grinds it out like his role model did for hours on end on the Test pitch. And just so do you witness AB de Villiers summon enough confidence to play the scoop shot in pure whites when he senses the need to win, even while he's amply capable of blocking and leaving, session after session.
But it's not just the batsmen. Mitchell Johnson's killer instincts might remind the old cricket-loving gentleman of his own contemporary - Jeff 'Thommo' Thompson. But Johnson isn't Thompson. He's a different breed - far more superior, agile, athletic and lethal. He knows how to take the batsman's head off, just as well as he knows how to crush his toes - a modern day skill born out of T20 needs and one that Stuart Broad experienced first hand from his Aussie rival at Perth.
And then the fielders; Ajinkya Rahane did twice in two days what his middle-aged forefathers found hard to do even once a season - fall into the earth, stop a speeding ball and take the stumps out with a full-blooded hurl at them. And in New Zealand, almost at the same time, Kane Williamson got rid of Shiv Chanderpaul by grasping a catch you'd have to see to believe. Indeed, the modern day tattoed-arm fielder - thanks to the furious pace of T20 cricket - is light years ahead on athleticism than the old times.
But above all, where T20 has really impacted Test cricket is in the way teams now think. The realms of possibility in the mind of the captain has widened incredibly today. What seemed impossible once upon a time is more readily chased down today. Two of the biggest fourth innings chases in Test cricket were scripted in the last 3 years and South Africa nearly added the topmost cherry last night. Indeed, the modern day captain is less afraid of losing than he was before - simply because he is far more confident of winning from a certain situation than he was previously. Players have become more versatile and, therefore better able and more willing to win games than before. And as a result of it all, the spectator is getting to see some riveting cricket for all that it's worth.
When T20 was invented, one hardly expected it to have an impact on the way Test cricket is played. As T20 became more commercial, there were alarms raised over the life expectancy of Test cricket. But what T20 has done instead is to spice up the Test curry and serve it with a delectable aroma. Cricket has never been better.
Few thousand miles away in the same Hemisphere meanwhile, the underdogs (funny when you consider ICC ranks them No. 2 in the world) nearly conquered the Proteas in their own savannas. Buoyed by the return of wily old Zaheer, the Indian Test team did what the world champion ODI team couldn't do - last a whole game against South Africa without being defeated.
Whoever once thought Test cricket obsolete surely is rolling in the mud right now. Never before have draws added so much of excitement to the game. And never before have draws been as desirable to the spectator as they have been of late. In fact, T20 didn't endanger Test match cricket. If anything, it only enhanced it. Is it a strange coincidence then that the number of Test matches ending with a result has only increased since the advent of T20?
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| Flying Kiwi: Williamson's stunning catch off Chanderpaul |
But it's not just the batsmen. Mitchell Johnson's killer instincts might remind the old cricket-loving gentleman of his own contemporary - Jeff 'Thommo' Thompson. But Johnson isn't Thompson. He's a different breed - far more superior, agile, athletic and lethal. He knows how to take the batsman's head off, just as well as he knows how to crush his toes - a modern day skill born out of T20 needs and one that Stuart Broad experienced first hand from his Aussie rival at Perth.
And then the fielders; Ajinkya Rahane did twice in two days what his middle-aged forefathers found hard to do even once a season - fall into the earth, stop a speeding ball and take the stumps out with a full-blooded hurl at them. And in New Zealand, almost at the same time, Kane Williamson got rid of Shiv Chanderpaul by grasping a catch you'd have to see to believe. Indeed, the modern day tattoed-arm fielder - thanks to the furious pace of T20 cricket - is light years ahead on athleticism than the old times.
But above all, where T20 has really impacted Test cricket is in the way teams now think. The realms of possibility in the mind of the captain has widened incredibly today. What seemed impossible once upon a time is more readily chased down today. Two of the biggest fourth innings chases in Test cricket were scripted in the last 3 years and South Africa nearly added the topmost cherry last night. Indeed, the modern day captain is less afraid of losing than he was before - simply because he is far more confident of winning from a certain situation than he was previously. Players have become more versatile and, therefore better able and more willing to win games than before. And as a result of it all, the spectator is getting to see some riveting cricket for all that it's worth.
When T20 was invented, one hardly expected it to have an impact on the way Test cricket is played. As T20 became more commercial, there were alarms raised over the life expectancy of Test cricket. But what T20 has done instead is to spice up the Test curry and serve it with a delectable aroma. Cricket has never been better.
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