Former cricketers keep elaborating on the damage T20 has
done to the game while modern day cricketers keep defending it. Statistics over the past six years or since
the inaugural IPL in 2008 clearly illustrate the affect T20 has had a profound
effect in terms of developing formidable test batsmen.
It is largely due to modern day batsmen basing their game
around attack rather than defence. The
players are simply inept of scoring ‘tough’ runs and prefer to have them served
on a platter in form of a flat track. In the last six years only five batsmen that
have debut in Test cricket after 2008 have managed to average 40. This is an alarming
stat and coincides with the rise of T20 cricket.
Number of batsmen (batted in the top 6) to debut for their
respective countries since 2008 are Australia 11, West Indies 9, New Zealand 9,
India 8, England 7, Sri Lanka 5, Pakistan 5 and South Africa 4. The total
number is 58 and to have only 5 average over 40 is deplorable.
The figures above also coincide with the batting decline of
the respective countries. Australia’s is yet to find a young batsman that has a
game moulded for test cricket. West
Indies and New Zealand are not the strongest Test nations. India has had to
deal with retirements of some of the greatest batsmen in modern era but luckily
have been blessed with Kohli and Pujara. Both of whom have a game to excel in
Test cricket. Core of England’s batting
is close to 30 but given the way England have categorised players for a
particular format one expects them to have a few Test prospects coming
along. South Africa is the number one
team in the world and like England have majority of the players around the age
of 30. Both South Africa and England are likely to face similar issues to India
and Australia in another four years when there Test Specialist or those whom
have moulded their games on basis of defence rather than T20 depart.
The five cricketers to average over 40 are Virat Kohli,
Cheteshwar Pujara (India), Jonathon Trott (England), Faf Du Plessis (South
Africa) and Darren Bravo (West Indies). Now apart from Kohli and Du Plessis the
other three don’t get a run in the T20 teams of their respective
countries. While Kohli is part of
generation to evolve during the emerging T20 era, Du Plessis at age 29, is
still a product of pre T20 game, so naturally he has been adjust his game to
the short version.
Joe Root, Kane Williamson
will end up nudging their averages past 40 marks eventually but the matter of
the fact is these cricketers are Test specialist. They have games based on solid techniques and
as history shows it is a lot easier to transform a Test cricketer into an ODI
or T20 player than the other way. Very few cricketers have managed to convert from
T20 cricketers to Test cricketer.
In reality the cricketing systems around the world simply aren’t
producing enough Test batsmen and the sole blame should be on T20 cricket.
Australia has failed to find stability right from the
top. No emerging youngsters through the
ranks are good enough to replace Langer and Hayden. India has failed to find recognised Test
batsmen at number 6, since the retirement of Ganguly in 2008. No upcoming
youngster has been able to lock down the number 6 position for England or South
Africa. What will happen in four years
when the Test specialist retires? Teams have struggled to find one batsman to
average more than 40 in last six years; no wonder teams are expecting bowlers
to score runs.
Perhaps we are all starting to realise the past greats were
right, T20 has definitely stopped the development of Test cricketers after all.
