ASHES PROVES AN ELIXIR FOR TEST CRICKET

The finest of international cricketers regard Test cricket as the pinnacle of the sport - and the thrilling Ashes series that concluded recently was a fabulous testament to this view. The hard-fought series eventually shared 2-2 by Australia and England was a great advertisement for Test cricket at a time when T20 league fervour is gripping the entire cricketing world. But the Bazzball style by England and the hard old-fashioned grinding cricket by the Aussies became a huge hit among cricket lovers to an extent that experts have termed the series as arguably one of the best ever since the turn of the millennium.

The 2023 clash also brought back memories of the epic 2005 Ashes which England had won 2-1. At the time the T20 format had just started picking up and most international teams including India were yet to play their first match! The Aussie side of that era is considered to be an all-time great team. It was under the then captain Michael Vaughn, that the English team fought valiantly to win back the urn after 1987.

There are plenty of similarities between that series and the current one. While the 2005 Australian team was number 1 at the time, the current Aussie line-up just won the World Test Championship a couple of months back beating India in the final. England were comprehensively beaten in the first Test in 2005 and came back to script a remarkable series win. Similarly, in the recent Ashes clash, England couldn’t win the series, they came back from 2-0 behind to draw the series. The biggest contributing factor for England’s revival in 2005 was allrounder Andrew Flintoff and here too Chris Woakes stood up to the Aussie challenge eventually to emerge as the Player of the Series!

But the big distinguishing factor from 2005 was the style of play adopted by England in recent timesBazzball. The aggressive and entertaining way of playing Test Cricket has made sure that England never took a step back. Even as the English side was down 2-0, captain Ben Stokes spoke about how winning the next three tests was the only thing on his team’s mind. The result was that after winning the third test and seeing rain destroy the chances of a series win in the fourth test, England pushed hard to ensure that despite frequent rain breaks, the 5th test came to a conclusion in their favour.

It could possibly have been a drawn test too, if English batters hadn’t played at over 5 runs an over through the match. From Zack Crawley at the top to Mark Wood in the lower order, English batsmen justified the hype around their Bazzball style. Australia had already retained the urn and would have been fine with a draw in the final match being 2-1 up. But it was the urgency and ferocity of the England team that saw them winning the final test with just an hour left to play.

Test cricket badly needed this invigoration. In his own words, Stokes admitted, “The series is generally what Test cricket needed: two high-quality teams going toe-to-toe for six or seven weeks.” With the raging spread of T20 leagues, the time span of an average viewer has been decreasing which has led to a slow death of cricket’s purest format. But with this series the viewership has been high and social media debates about the series have brought huge engagement. Both captains opined that like the 2005 series, this series can be an “inspiration for the new generation” to becoming a test cricketer and not just a T20 league player!

So, can other teams around the world go Bazzball hard or play the old book cricket is a question that remains a talking point. Whichever way it may be but currently Test cricket needs more such enthralling encounters among various teams. In such a scenario a 2-Test series, like the one India and Windies played a few days back, should be done away with. Unfortunately, at the moment, this is usually the maximum length of a series involving other nations than India, Australia or England.

The ICC should ensure that more teams play a higher number of Test matches. Over a long period of time, this is the only way to preserve and make sure that test cricket flourishes. Sport tests the depth of individuals and Test cricket is a true measure of the greatness of a player. In a holistic manner, this will also help refine the skills of the cricketers which will emanate in T20 leagues around the world. In that context, Ashes 2023 will go down in history as one of the most riveting clashes in cricketing history and possibly the one that brought Test cricket back in vogue!

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

Siddhaarth Mahan The writer is a specialist on Sports and Cinema who works as an actor in the Hindi film industry