Will India, cricket's superpower, save the Test format?

It was around 8 45 p.m. India time on Saturday, January 27, 2018, when Mohammed Shami ran in bowl to Lungi Ngidi for his fifth wicket in what was shaping up to be a match winning spell in Johannesburg. The Indians were sensing a famous come from behind win in the third and final Test of the series. Social media was abuzz with Indian fans expressing themselves and the Indian dressing room was on edge. Ravi Shastri, India's head coach and his bowling deputy Bharat Arun, were nervous too and the sense of anticipation multiplied with every ball. Indian captain Virat Kohli, passionate and expressive as ever, had marshalled his troops dextrously, reducing South Africa from 124/1 to 161/9 in a 241 - a run chase that was seemingly been on course to culminating in a 3 - 0 whitewash by the hosts.

For Kohli, it was a moment of reckoning. India having been defeated in the previous two Tests and staring at a whitewash, had all of a sudden given themselves a crack at redemption. The series may have been lost, but pride wasn't. Credibility stood to be restored and, with it, a renewed sense of hope that this team is capable of doing well overseas and consistently so. At the start of the Wanderers Test, many had pegged it as dead rubber. It was, however, anything but dead. On a treacherous pitch, which was subsequently rated 'poor' by the ICC on account of making 'batting extremely difficult and hazardous' and as the match progressed, with four South African fast bowlers steaming in, the Proteas had done everything they could to make most of their home advantage. Determined to avenge 2015 and complete a 3-0 clean sweep, it was another no-hold-barred contest. India, under Kohli was committed to pulling one back and reignite faith. With Ngidi miscuing a pull and the ball flying to Parthiv's hand, history was made. Test cricket was rejuvenated again. Test cricket wasn't dead.

This win not only went down as one of the most courageous effort by the men in blue, but also was a great advertisement for Test cricket. Lately, Test cricket seemed to be dying in this age of fast-paced cricket. This is where the role of India, the powerhouse of cricket, becomes crucial. George Bernard Shaw once famously exclaimed: “Cricket is game played by 11 fools and watched by 11,000 fools.” It certainly rings true in the Indian subcontinent, where even an inconsequential matchup still brings everything to a standstill for three, six or 80 hours, depending on which format you’re watching.

Just how cricket-crazy fans in India are can be gauged by observing that a cricket stadium built in the middle of nowhere, right along the Mumbai-Pune highway, gets packed to the rafters for a 4pm game in the middle of May. Rustic, cattle-rearing people, with divine affection for their heroes, swarm the stadiums battling the fatal summer loo, hours of struggle through multiple traffic congestions - the highway is chock-a-block on match days - and their own hunger and thirst, with not many resources to replenish their reserves. All of this for what? To watch a few men play a sport.

Kohli's love for Test cricket is infectious could be the saviour for the format. Virat Kohli has laid out his vision for the Indian team, saying, “I wouldn't say goal but I would rather speak of a vision, which is for India to be a superpower in Test cricket or a very, very strong side in Test cricket in the years to come,” he told Star Sports.

Like a Hollywood studio production line, doomsday scripts are deluging us. But as we know scripts can be scary; they need not necessarily be true. And so it must be stated upfront: cricket is not in peril; it is merely undergoing change. Some people equate the two, but that happens every time a comfortable world order is disturbed. Cricket as we knew it might change.

The 21st century started with one of the greatest Test series of all time when Australia came to India in 2001. At its midpoint, we had one of the most riveting Ashes series ever. There was also some quality cricket played between Australia and South Africa, and Pakistan and New Zealand, another fine Ashes series and a contentious Indian tour of Australia in 2017 where controversy shrouds the fact that it was still an excellent contest. Elsewhere, in the middle, cricket caught politicians napping and brought Indians and Pakistanis closer than ever before. But politics had the last laugh and that wonderful period between Kargil (1999) and Mumbai's 26/11(2008) may never return. Cricket's greater enemy, certainly in our part of the world, is not change but the hatred that evil minds spread and feed on.

And so, in spite of being on death row for a while, Test cricket gave us many happy moments. And, given its resilience, it would be fair to expect a few more in near future. The key question, though, will be whether or not youngsters either want to play it or look at it as the highest form of the game. Those that lit up Test cricket, the Warnes and McGraths, Pontings and Tendulkars, and Dravids and Muralis grew up dreaming of playing Test cricket. Teenagers today may not feel the same way and will present an interesting challenge.

Already we are seeing fewer and fewer cricketers wanting to bowl quick. Morne Morkle is a memory, Mitchell Starc turns up far too infrequently, Dale Steyn looks like he is done and Anderson is occasionally sighted. That explains the increasing number of 50+ batting averages in recent times and also why it has been a batting century. Today good old Test cricket has been knocked around a bit, with viewership figures and attendances falling by some good margin.

While Tests in Australia, India and England still draw sizeable crowds, filling stadiums and boosting interest in the five-day game has been a challenge in the rest of the cricket world for years. Recently ICC chairman, Shashank Manohar has said the World Test championship has been introduced to stop the format from "dying". "We are trying to see whether Test championship can generate interest," Manohar said. "Because Test cricket is actually dying to be honest. So to improve the situation, we are trying ways and means. The [ICC] board directors came to a conclusion that if we start a Test championship, it would keep Test cricket alive and generate more interest in the game."

"If you look at the TRPs of the broadcasters, T20 has the maximum TRP. It is because of being the shorter version of the game. Nowadays, people don't have five days time to watch a Test match. From 10 to 5 everybody has their own job to do so it is very difficult for them to watch this game. T20s get over in three-and-a-half hours, like watching a movie. Therefore, it is picking up very fast."

My suspicion is, that it is not the Test format that is in danger, but the world contest played in front of neutral audiences. There is so much cricket that viewers must prioritize, and so home games are doing well and others are being ignored. If that is what market research is telling us then we need to tailor our products accordingly. For now Test cricket is still breathing and cricket boards around the world needs to prioritize the format and make it great again.