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Coping with the T20 impact in Test cricket
The slam-bang format’s impact in red-ball batting technique is growing; ex-stalwarts see players and coaches adapting
Mumbai: After the T20 World Cup in June, it is Test cricket that has been played the most prominently, heating up the race to win the two berths for next year’s World Test Championship final at Lord’s. The WTC is doing well to keep the traditional format alive, but the character of long-form cricket has changed dramatically. Several unexpected results have been thrown up with many teams looking uncomfortable at home, batting techniques taking a beating and visiting bowlers out-performing more fancied home bowling attacks.
Last week, Australia were dismissed for 104 by the Indian pacers at Perth. Indian batters were bundled out for 46 by New Zealand in the Bengaluru Test. The Kiwi spinners outshone India’s tweakers to clinch the series 3-0. This week, Sri Lanka were 42 all out against South Africa at Cape Town. In the last five years, on 10 occasions a team has been dismissed for 80 runs or less in a Test innings.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir has said that defensive batting techniques have been hampered by T20 cricket. “I agree with Gambhir,” said Dinesh Karthik, the India ambassador for SA20 league, in a media interaction. “When he said that lack of defensive technique is prevalent because of T20, I don’t think it’s a complaint. It is a reality and the players need to choose.”
Graeme Smith, former South Africa captain and the league commissioner, felt players will find a way to tweak their game between formats. “Naturally techniques would change. If I think back to the way I grew up, it was all about developing your game to play Test cricket and then you would adapt to ODI cricket. Now, players are thinking about power, thinking about how to flow up with that. Technically, they’re set up differently and they probably then have to grow and develop into the Test format,” he said.
“They’re growing up thinking about playing white-ball cricket and they’ve then got to develop the technique. Like Tristan Stubbs is doing where he’s come through the T20 formats. We saw David Warner do the same actually and then develop into a Test player.”
Karthik suggested that the grammar of the two formats was far too different to expect many players to excel in all formats. “You will find the odd Stubbs and Warner who are able to come in as T20 cricketers and grow and develop the game enough to play the Test format. And that also, the likes of Stubbs have come through mainly because of how much work is put in at the domestic level. Just like people trying to understand a couple of formats, it is the player who needs to understand where his strength lies and what he wants to invest more time in because the technique that is required for both these formats are very different.”
Speaking from a coaching perspective, former South Africa great Mark Boucher suggested it was a matter of embracing the new fabric of Test cricket. “The game moves quicker during different sessions now. I don’t think it’s really a technical thing...you’re still going to get your technicians, your red-ball specialists, but I think coaches are adapting as well and they’re giving players more licence to go play their natural game. You look at coaches like Brendon McCullum who says to guys, “if you want to get the first ball out the ground, if that’s going to be the best version of yourself, then go and do it”,” he said.
“Things like reverse sweeps nowadays is a natural shot that comes to these guys, they are working on them in the nets. So, I think it’s just the mindset that has changed and that’s just a natural development of the game that T20 has probably brought to cricket in general.
“There’s always going to be a period when there’s too much of this positive mindset, but I think it will come back down to normal again and you’ll start finding different players. You can’t select 11 in a team, but you can select two or three of them because you know if they come, they’re going to change the nature of the game,” added the former SA coach.
