Connecting the dots: IPL, T20s and old-school Test batting

The charm and glamour of a high paying event like the IPL have got the better of the hunger to play for long hours to score a satisfying hundred. Youngsters start off their cricketing careers by looking to grab an IPL contract to safeguard themselves from the uncertainties of a career in sports.

All the above-mentioned things have been said time and again. Players are not completely wrong in trying to look for a T20 career, but, there is one place where it hurts the true fans of this beautiful game the most- seeing the decline in quality of Test match batting.

T20 has taken a toll on the classical form of Test match batting. Gone are those days when a batsman used to bat out session after session in search of that period when he can dominate the bowlers. The time when there was a probability of a draw even when the team batting fourth had to bat out 150 overs. Some might argue that batsmen like Sehwag who used to bat aggressively were successful in Test cricket as well. Yes its true, but, the element that made them successful apart from their aggressiveness was the ability to play big innings which is somehow missing in modern-day batsmen who are bred on T20 cricket.

After dominating some world class bowlers in the T20 format, batsmen get this misconception that they can dominate the same bowlers in all the formats. This inflated ego results in some unwanted shots and a misplaced sense of adventure while batting, which leads to the downfall of these flat track bullies on seaming or spinning tracks.

There are a few batsmen in world cricket, who are able to transition seamlessly from one format to another, but, they are very few and the rest of the players are victims of this slam-bang approach.

One thing that often comes up nowadays is the domination of home teams. It is true but what has led to this? The answer lies in the ordinary batsmanship. To play well in alien conditions, a batsman needs to make some changes to his game in order to suit the conditions. Not all modern-day batsmen possess the discipline to make those adjustments, as a result, they are less equipped to bat in conditions which are alien to them.

No doubt, T20 is here to stay, but, as they say, an excess of everything is bad. What we need is the balance between the shortest version of the game and the longest version of the game, to bring back those days when we used to say "what a leave!"