The Twenty20 World Cup is as exciting as any adventure sport and the euphoria for this year has come to an end. It is exciting to watch fierce shots, brilliant interceptions and some amazing catches near the ropes.
But, what are the repercussions of this format? How is it affecting the overall quality of actual cricket? These are the questions that we need to ponder and address immediately. The gaining popularity of the format is the reason why the T20 World championship which is held every two years is projected the same way as the World Cup. There is no begrudging the exhilarating T20 format, but the hype involved and the false projection is causing a gradual deterioration of the longer format.
There is a vast difference between playing 120 balls in T20 and 2700 balls in Test cricket. Although the T20 format involves aggressive batting and alert fielding, Test cricket showcases the skill and tests the player in various ways; temperament, level of skill endurance playing a major role. The strategy management involved also varies. The wear and tear of the pitch, climatic conditions and other factors need to be assessed too. Therefore, the team that adapts quickly will always have an upper hand.
Now, with India playing 18 Tests between June this year and March next year, the preparation has to be different. It is essential to analyse and adapt the best of both these formats. As Zaheer Khan said don’t pick a player for Tests on IPL performance.
On the batting front, we get to watch reverse sweep and at times switch hit in Tests. Gone are the days when the openers were expected to see the shine off the ball by leaving the ball outside the line of the stumps. Now the batsmen cut ferociously over the head of the gully fielder or hit over the cover fielder.
The standard of fielding, however, has gone to another level — all thanks to the fitness and fielding drills for the T20! “A run saved is a run scored”, they say. Now, with the T20, a four saved is equivalent to a four scored. This level of fielding has made Test cricket more challenging.
Poor bowling standardAlthough there is a significant improvement in the batting and fielding of the Indian team, the bowling standard has dropped drastically. The skills required by the bowlers to experiment and show variety in Test cricket is lacking. The same lot of tried and tested bowlers are picked for all the formats. They don’t possess the skills to attain top quality and are unable to defend even 500 plus runs.
The wily off-spinner, E.A.S. Prasanna stresses that “length is mandatory and line is optional”. It seems simple but to get the length right one has to practise long hours at the nets. It’s not happening as bowlers are constantly travelling.
We have reconciled to the fact that after the retirement of Anil Kumble, we don’t have the attack to get 20 wickets. However, this is a fallacy. We do have quality bowlers but with too much domestic cricket, they don’t get time to recover from the injuries.
The fast bowlers are overloaded with net practice. This affects the bowler considerably. For instance, when Munaf Patel arrived on the scene, he was consistently bowling at 140-145 km per hour. Within a couple of years, he was around 130 km per hour bowling line and length!
In the longer run and at an international level, the only way to succeed is to conform to all the formats and acclimatise. But, with the onset of IPL, top Indian players will be busy till the last week of May which leaves no gap for the preparation that is required for playing 18 Tests till March. Even geniuses like Tendulkar, Lara and Kallis had to practise hard before getting into the zone of the longer format.
This especially puts the bowlers in a spot. The bowler working on different variety in the IPL for six weeks has to gear up and train within three weeks to bowl 20 overs in an innings with the red ball. There is also a vast difference between white and red balls. Therefore, it is very important to assess the role of these ever-changing formats on the overall quality of cricket.
The ever-changing formats in cricket have finally come down to Entertainment versus Quality with money being the catalyst! The sooner the Indian players and the coaching staff realise it the better it will be for Indian cricket.
