Ben Horne opinion: Four-day Tests the common sense answer to keeping Test cricket’s lights on

On one hand Test cricket has never been in more danger, but Australia’s seven-session rout of India is evidence it has never been in better shape - and the four-day formula is the common sense solution to keeping the oldest format’s lights on.

The fury of Test cricket has become so extreme that the push for four day matches seems almost like common sense.

Games are finishing at record pace and the fact 33,184 fans packed into Adelaide Oval for not even one session of play says the punters are loving the greatest format on fast forward.

The late and great US comedian Robin Williams once described cricket as “like baseball on Valium”, but there is barely a second to catch your breath in the modern game.

Over-rates might have slowed to snail pace, yet it barely makes a difference because the game is flying along at warp speed.

In Adelaide, Australia stampeded their way to a 10-wicket victory before lunch on day three, while over the ditch England had dusted up New Zealand in similarly quick time.

On one hand Test cricket has never been in more danger, but on Sunday’s evidence it has never been in better shape.

Adelaide’s day-night Test match is a hit with fans. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

T20 might have eroded the ability of batsmen to dig in for classical Test match innings, but at the same time perhaps the shortest form has reinvigorated its cricketing grandfather and given it a new lease on life.

The type of tests players are confronting on the field of battle might be different, but the Tests have never been more memorable and pulsating.

Rishabh Pant charging Scott Boland first ball when his team is four down and trailing badly under lights.

Travis Head accelerating his run-scoring towards a hundred even though he’d been dropped in the deep.

A match steaming ahead so rapidly spinner Nathan Lyon barely needed a shower after bowling just one over for the entire three days.

Pink ball Tests have never been the most popular amongst players, but the record 135,012 fans which have set Adelaide Oval alight this week says something powerful about Test cricket under lights.

South African great Dale Steyn was watching on and was asking his followers on X when his home nation will start to embrace the pink ball?

Test cricket needs to be entertainment to survive and the modern superstars like Head, Mitchell Starc and Pant are delivering.

Traditionalists hate the suggestion bandied around in recent years that Test cricket should be cut down from five days to four.

But when matches are routinely over in three or four days, does it make any difference?

If cutting a day means fitting more Test cricket into schedules, better tailoring it around weekend viewing for fans, and reducing the cost of hosting Tests for the less wealthy nations, then maybe it’s time to pull the trigger?

Either way, bring on the rest of this series because Fast and Furious Test cricket is impossible to turn away from.

Originally published as Ben Horne opinion: Four-day Tests the common sense answer to keeping Test cricket’s lights on