Every generation asks the question: Will Test cricket survive? The game has been an anachronism in every age, and that is its beauty. When motor cars or passenger trains or aircraft arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries, there was talk of the increased pace of life and how the long-format game was doomed. The elegiac air has been ever present.
When society itself is changing at a rapid pace, why would cricket, which reflects it, not change? The question then is not if the five-day game should be sustained but whether it can be, given in particular television’s allergy to the so-called ‘lesser’ matches. The establishment of the World Test Championship has given the format some relevance and the teams something to aspire for. But it is a club within a club, with only nine of the 12 teams in the fray, and a system susceptible to manipulation.
India have the numbers to keep Test cricket alive; Australia the results and England the tradition, but is that enough? These teams have won World Cups in both white ball formats, suggesting they have the system and the variety of players. And they are blurring focus on Tests at a slower pace.
Two great teams of the past, the West Indies and Pakistan seem to be in terminal decline, their focus firmly on franchise T20, the format most likely to bring them success. Is that a precursor to the end of Test cricket itself?
Transition
Teams going through transition is natural; but now the sport itself seems to be in transition. Many believe we might be closer to the shortest format taking over than we have ever been.
South Africa, the official World Test champions haven’t played a Test since November last, and a white ball champion Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is the most exciting name in the sport, filling stadiums even for first class matches. You don’t need to be a reader of entrails or tea leaves to see the future of the game. It’s already here. Or maybe not.
The West Indies and Pakistan, both of whom have also won both white ball titles, have similar issues, starting from poor administration to lack of public interest in a team that doesn’t win often enough. In Pakistan’s case players didn’t emerge so much from their system as through some form of spontaneous evolution.
A Javed Miandad sees a teenage left arm bowler in the nets and picks him for the national team to set Wasim Akram on track. An Imran Khan picks a youngster against the wishes of the selectors and he, Inzamam-ul Haq, becomes an international star.
Inconsistency has been the hallmark of Pakistan’s cricket. They have been a team as capable of thrashing the best as losing to the worst. Yet, when former skipper Azhar Ali, a 97-Test veteran, says in an interview, “We don’t even do inconsistency any more,” the humour cannot hide the pathos. “We’ve become totally consistent,” he says, “in the most negative way.”
Not so long ago, all cricket aspired to Test cricket; now Test cricket is seen by some as a stepping stone to the more important T20. In any case, Tests, even between near-equal teams, are getting shorter, often finishing in under 200 overs.
Still, some of recent results have been exciting because of their sheer unexpectedness. So long as a sport can surprise, upsetting the set patterns and hierarchies, there is hope. Bangladesh won a Test in Australia while both South Africa and New Zealand comfortably won series in India, a fortress that seemed impregnable at one time. England’s Bazball sparkled briefly, bringing to Test cricket the mentality and strokes of T20, but carrying with it the seeds of its own destruction.
Remaining distinct
Test cricket’s salvation lies in remaining distinct. With greater leisure thanks to technology, we might welcome the sport’s intensity and artificiality to pass those extra hours fully engaged. The industrial revolution did that for football by creating such leisure; the AI revolution might do so for cricket.
Perhaps the administrators need to continue what it has been doing. Which is, nothing.
Test cricket is a great survivor, written off periodically but outlasting horse buggies, trams, radios, and fax machines. Obituaries may be premature.
Published – September 09, 2026 12:30 am IST
