Two of the more remarkable Test match victories of all time were completed in the past 10 days and, as always when these events occur, the game benefits around the world.
India’s second Test against Bangladesh in Kanpur lost its entire second and third days to rain after a severely curtailed first day. Desperate to win to keep alive their hopes of reaching the final of the World Test Championship, India smashed 285/9 declared in just 34.4 overs, bowled the Bangla Tigers out cheaply a second time and then chased down the 95 they needed for victory in 17.2 overs.
Just as extraordinary was England’s opening victory against Pakistan in Multan last week where they became the first team in history to concede a first innings total of over 550 and then win by an innings.
The hosts spent the first five sessions of the match compiling a total of 556 only to see the tourists reply with an eye-watering 823/7 in which Harry Brook became the sixth Englishman to score a triple-century (317) with the prolific Joe Root (262) also making his career best. They scored the runs at over five to the over and might well have won on the fourth evening had they not dropped four catches in the withering heat.
Bewildering and impressive as the records and statistics of these achievements are, it is more the audacity of thinking and the stretching of the constraints on what has, for over a century, been thought to be possible that will make the greatest impact on the greatest format of the game.
“This is how the world has always progressed and cricket is no different. England have been pioneers in that,” said a not particularly downtrodden Pakistan captain, Shan Masood, after the pummelling.
Since the start of the Bazball era England have won three times after conceding more than 400 in the first innings, including a total of 457 by the West Indies in Nottingham earlier this year.
In 147 years of Test cricket there are precedents for most things. In 2006 England piled up 551/6 against Australia in Adelaide before losing late on the fifth day against an inspired and rampant Shane Warne. But the pace of even that game was pedestrian compared to the two most recent games.
There is undoubtedly a feeling that the five-day game is entering an uncharted era of fast scoring and high-octane entertainment. A Test match has 30 hours scheduled in it. Perhaps, finally, players are beginning to realise just what can be achieved in such a long time.
“I would think the game is moving in that direction, for sure, with so much white ball cricket being played. When you play the few Tests we have then rather run with that momentum than fight it,” said Aiden Markram on Monday, six days before he will captain the Proteas in the first of their two Tests against Bangladesh in Dhaka.
“But there are definitely still times when you have to get ‘stuck in’ and do the hard work if needs be done — but then, hopefully, you are able to transfer the pressure through a good scoring rate.”
Coach Shukri Conrad is both a “traditionalist” and also a man with very few opportunities to prove his worth — “We play fewer Tests than anyone else!” — so he can hardly be rash in risking defeat in the pursuit of victory. But he wasn’t entirely ruling it out.
“In the event of lots of time being lost to the weather then we’d look to adopt something similar, but with five full days of cricket I don’t think that’s the formula,” he said. “If a batter takes an aggressive option that he’s practised and is comfortable with then that’s acceptable, but not soft dismissals. As long as a bowler has to bowl a really good delivery to get you out,” Conrad said.
The coach uses phrases familiar to generations of Test cricket lovers and talks of “marrying attack and defence”. “There will be times when they think ‘we have to take the aggressive route now’ which is fine, all the batters on the plane are naturally aggressive so they might not need much encouragement,” Conrad said.
There is a due level of respect for Bangladesh among the players (“…become a very good team these days, especially in their home conditions” and so on) but Conrad also said their hosts could be “an emotional team — they can fall down quite quickly if you starve them of wickets... put them under pressure with the bat...”
Nobody should expect a batting approach remotely close to that of India or England, but it certainly sounded like the South Africans are in concurrence with the belief that the days of attritional grind are over. But not the love and respect for Test cricket:
“To captain your country in a Test match is the ultimate honour, it’s what I dreamt about as a kid, and I’m incredibly grateful and honoured for the opportunity,” Markram said.
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