T20 Cricket and Everything Else
Is Test cricket a thing of the past? Or is T20 the latest invention to be replaced in a few years with 5-a-side?
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I find it astounding that teams like England and Australia still pick “specialists” for their T20 teams. All you have to do is look at the players with the higher averages in the CLT20 and other T20 tournaments and then measure it against sided playing with what is effectively their second eleven and you have clarity…
Players like Jacques Kallis and Raul Dravid seem to be consistently in the runs with good cricket shots and players like RP Singh seem to be struggling. Which brings me to the question as asked constantly in the media… Is Test cricket a thing of the past?
I think that it can go either way, but let’s not get hasty. T20 is a great format, which appeals to the masses, but Test Cricket is still the ultimate test. Instead of three to four hours, you are tested over five days. Mental strength and most importantly accountability. So often T20 players are kept in the side, because they can hit, rather than their result. In Test Cricket, you run the drinks trolley if you don’t perform.
And then there is the 50 over version, which has also come under the microscope during the last Champions Trophy. I still find this much more enjoyable than T20 cricket, purely because it still contains the most important element of cricket: time…
If you are chasing 170odd runs in 120odd balls, you can go for it and the game is pretty obvious from the end of the 10th over. In 50 over cricket, you can get off to a flyer, chasing 300odd from 300 balls, but because there is so much time for things to swing it has an element of excitement to it. How many times have teams gotten off to a flyer looking like they could make 10runs an over and then ends up bowled out for 250 runs or below? And the best teams in the world knows that there is a time for hitting (powerplays) and a time for rotating.
All of this is my personal opinion of course, and I would not wish to shove it down anybody’s throat. Hopefully the Cricket Gods will look favourably on all types of cricket and soon we’ll have mini knockout tournaments of 5 a side!
