Posted by England’s three-match T20 series against the West Indies starts tonight, which means that 90% of recent news has been about the Test series that follows. England named their Test squad, you see – because they didn’t feel doing that would confuse people at all.
It’s noteworthy that, in this country at least, Test cricket still has a way of elbowing T20 aside. This isn’t necessarily the case elsewhere in the world. So many people turned out for Royal Challengers Bangalore’s victory parade a few days ago that 11 people were killed in a stampede.
That tragic event brought a rare instance where we found ourself in agreement with India coach Gautham Gambhir, who said he was, “never a believer that we need to have roadshows.”
Sports matches are the bit you watch. That’s where the story unfolds. A victory parade is inconsequential aftermath; nothing more than the pointless brandishing of a thing.
A senary accomplishment
Speaking before those sad events had taken place, Virat Kohli proclaimed RCB’s win, “right up there with the best moments I’ve had in my career – but it still marks five levels under Test cricket. That’s how much I value Test cricket. And that’s how much I love Test cricket.”
> Virat Kohli will be insanely easy to replace
Ingratitude is very much in the news this week, but we’ve long detected it in many English cricket fans’ feelings towards Kohli. There’s a lot of antipathy for the man on these shores, yet we’d argue he’s done more than anyone to preserve Test cricket over the course of his career and we do believe he deserves an awful lot of respect for that.
MS Dhoni’s India team always played Test cricket to win. It’s just that quite often they really didn’t give onlookers that impression. We once wrote that as a touring Test captain, Dhoni tended to come across as an automaton with no white flag who would watch the wheels fall off and roll away armed only with an air of blank-faced acquiescence.
That was where it felt like the longest format was headed when Dhoni stood down… at which point Kohli took over.
An awful lot of people talk about Test cricket being “the pinnacle of the sport” without ever taking a single action that demonstrates they truly believe this.
Kohli may well be merely telling us how great Test cricket is nowadays, but to be fair to the lad, he did show us first. His feelings were obvious in both his annoyingly impassioned on-field demeanour and also in the fact that he shaped a team that gave no quarter and fought to become the best in the format.
India takes Test cricket very seriously right now and the conviction of the sport’s biggest superstar did a hell of a lot to drive that sentiment.
As for why it’s so important, you could spend a good long while slicing and dicing that eternal question – but why bother when we already have the fine, pithy and unarguable explanation of Marlon Samuels already?
It’s Big Man Cricket, innit?
England v India Tests are on the way…
This is why recent articles about “England’s number three” reference a series that doesn’t start for a fortnight, rather than the one that starts in a few hours. (Our take is that it will probably be Ollie Pope not Jacob Bethell, but the selectors are secretly hoping one of the specialist batters gets injured before then so that the team picks itself.)
It’s also why Jofra Archer is in the news. He’s skipping these T20s but is being lined up to play for Sussex against Durham during the first Test. According to England’s national selector, Luke Wright, Archer is “trucking along really well actually,” and if he doesn’t gather too many injuries during that first-class match, he should be available for the second Test.
Lord Megachief of Gold, Jasprit Bumrah, has been offering insights on what it’ll be like to play England too.
“They’re playing an interesting style of cricket,” he said, “which is interesting because I don’t really understand it too much.”
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Totally with you on the point that some people talk the talk about the importance of test cricket without walking the walk. I’ll be walking the walk with up to three days at the World Test Championship Final next week.
In other news, albeit slightly belated, I have this morning posted a report from 50 years ago: https://ianlouisharris.com/1975/05/31/selected-for-cricket-first-eleven-aged-12-other-alleyns-school-hard-ball-stories-plus-mums-hip-op-more-may-1975/
Derring-do or what?
Please use the universally agreed terminology, Ged. One must always refer to the ‘primacy’ of Test cricket.
My match report from the ICC World Test Championship Final will be sure to use the word “primacy” and not use the word importance. That’s assuming you want a report, of course.
I am wondering what the vibe is going to be like at Lord’s with the vast majority of the crowd being Aussies and Saffers. I’ll be trying out various parts of the ground over the days I am there. One day with friends, one day with Daisy and one day theoretically on me tod. I’m super excited.
Of course we do! Don’t let our failure to publish in anything approaching a timely manner persuade you otherwise.
I, too, will be attending next week’s ‘Shambles masquerading as a showpiece’. Planning to grab the ceremonial mace, run through the Long Room and let forth a bestial roar.
There is a lot to dislike about Virat Kohli. But I’ve alway really liked him.