You might hate it, but T20 saved Test cricket this summer

Some sundries on Test cricket that may not be on other scorecards:

Test cricket is most entertaining when the bowlers dominate

Twenty-one years ago, India came to Australia with a batting order including Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag. Australia’s order was Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Damien Martyn, Steve Waugh, Simon Katich and Adam Gilchrist. The current XIs would struggle to get one batsman into those teams. Yet for entertainment value, there is no comparison. That summer, each match ran the full five days with all-star batting, but Tendulkar’s 10-hour innings in Sydney was most notable for a shot (the cover drive) that he did not play. Batfests are dull. On the other hand, high-class bowling against moderate batting provides swings, roundabouts, and excitement. It didn’t matter that the only game to end in a draw this summer needed water added. Travis Head’s 448 at 56 would have got him sixth in the aggregates and eighth in the averages 21 years go. The rest of today’s batters would be nowhere. But when bowlers dominate, runs have value. Which series would you rather watch?

T20 is helping Test cricket but not in the way we thought

Was the batting that bad or the bowling that good? Was it the pitches? You can never answer these questions definitively, but here’s one observation. There was a fear, with the arrival of Twenty20, that cricket would revert back to its early class-divided years, gentlemen turning up with their bats to hand out a good hiding to the coal miners, butlers and ostlers serving them balls to hit. This series showed the opposite trend: bowlers have become smarter and more accurate since the advent of T20 (because they have to), whereas batters, or batterers, have failed to develop stronger technique and concentration (because they don’t have to). According to the International Cricket Council, the pitches were good or very good, even in Sydney, so they can’t be blamed for flattering the bowlers. Dr Grace’s words are no longer true. We go to the cricket to watch great bowlers bowl, and to see which batsmen survive them.

Shield success … Beau WebsterCredit: Getty Images

The Sheffield Shield: who knew?

After four years of not dropping anyone on performance and ignoring the world’s most proven domestic trialling ground, the Australian selectors went on a wild orgy, omitting Nathan McSweeney and Mitchell Marsh in the space of two weeks. McSweeney was stiff to be selected out of position, but he did play a series-turning innings in Adelaide and has been given a chance in Sri Lanka. Astonishingly, Marsh (top bloke, defied gravity for 18 months) made way for Beau Webster, who had produced the best Shield all-round season since Garry Sobers. Australia’s selectors wisely used the advantage of being at home and having a deeper pool to choose players from. Webster was largely responsible for the series-sealing win at the SCG. He looked like a complete cricketer, seasoned by a decade in the Shield. Congratulations to the selectors for discovering it.

Virat Kohli’s biggest embarrassment?

It’s close-run: the bat dangling outside off-stump like a sock on a Hills Hoist, the hectoring for video reviews from second slip, the overshadowing of the captain, the confected outrage at a TV reporter in an airport? But the shoulder charge of Sam Konstas in Melbourne wins it by DRS from doing a Marcel Marceau sandpaper act in Sydney. Both showed a once-great Test cricketer stuck behind the times. He’ll always be a favourite for me, but so was Changa Langlands. Even the best can stay too long.

The T20 Test evolutionCredit: Simon Letch

Most disappointing player

This will sound tough on a bowler who took 20 wickets at 31, but Mohammed Siraj was the key like-for-like difference between the teams. Put simply, Australia’s fast bowling depth defeated India’s. Siraj is a world-class bowler, but with the new ball he was repeatedly too short and too wide, and he could not give Jasprit Bumrah the back-up, in penetration or accuracy, that India needed. Many other players in this series were inferior to Siraj, but his underperformance was pivotal in a way that theirs wasn’t. India’s bowling was a one-man band when a two-man band would have been enough.

Iron men

Siraj deserves admiration for playing all five Test matches and producing his best when Bumrah was cooked in Sydney. Bumrah, Siraj, Patrick Cummins and Mitchell Starc bowled their hearts out across five matches in seven weeks. They deserve a rest.

Scott Boland

Yeah!

People love going to stuff

A lot has been made of the record-breaking crowds, but don’t people love going out at the moment? Australia’s football codes, men’s and women’s sport, and random things like New Year’s Eve and live concerts are smashing it. As an enochlophobic agoraphobic hypochondriac hermit, I offer no insights into why. We’re in a phase of flocking, where tickets to big events are a treat most can’t deny themselves. Blame property prices, end times or something, but this social change is working for live entertainment.

Summer success … Scott Boland.Credit: Getty

One-tier, two-tier, four-day, five-day? The answer: India

It’s painful to hear administrators from Australia and England speak of Test cricket’s future as if they have a say in it. All their questions lead to the same place: Test cricket will do what India wants. Our role is to lie down for a tummy rub and hope our owner still loves us.

Sam Konstas

Lots of us enjoyed what he did. He’s 19, and he worked to a plan agreed upon by his coach and captain. The ends justified the means, and this was just a first act. Save your curiosity for what happens when Konstas goes through the career trajectory of all the batting biggies: slumps and goes back to the Shield to build the long-term foundations of their game. Konstas won’t have to do this. He can take multi-million-dollar offers from T20 leagues instead. Serve his apprenticeship in front of ten people in Coffs or St Kilda, or spend his twenties reverse-ramping for gazillions in front of packed houses in Mumbai? He doesn’t seem the old-fashioned type.

More help for spinners please

Nathan Lyon looked in good form when he had a decent bowl in Melbourne. Anyone who loves Test cricket loves spin bowling. Not even Warnie would have got much of a go this Australian summer. Memo to the BCCI/ICC: should Test matches be three innings a side?

England will be better

More depth in fast bowling, more batsmen at the peak of their careers, more confidence, better leadership. Only an idiot would predict a close Ashes series in Australia. Next summer will be a close Ashes series in Australia.