Over the past decade, the obit­u­ary for Test crick­et has been pre­ma­ture­ly writ­ten count­less times. Every few months, we hear the alarm­ing de­c­la­ra­tion: “Test crick­et is dead!”

With the rise of T20 crick­et—char­ac­terised by its ex­plo­sive bat­ting, quick re­sults, and fran­chise glam­our—many be­lieve that the tra­di­tion­al for­mat is fad­ing in­to ob­scu­ri­ty.

The packed crowds at T20 tour­na­ments, such as those fea­tur­ing the Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers, of­ten serve as a back­drop for these claims, es­pe­cial­ly in the Caribbean, where some ar­gue that the youth are in­creas­ing­ly dis­in­ter­est­ed in the longer for­mat. But is Test crick­et gen­uine­ly on its deathbed? Or is it mere­ly bid­ing its time, wait­ing for a resur­gence? This ques­tion de­serves a thought­ful ex­plo­ration, par­tic­u­lar­ly in light of re­cent de­vel­op­ments in the crick­et­ing world.

While it’s easy to ar­gue that Test crick­et is dy­ing, I find my­self aligned with tra­di­tion­al­ists who be­lieve in the for­mat’s en­dur­ing al­lure. Test crick­et, with its strate­gic nu­ances and epic bat­tles, cap­ti­vates not just die-hard fans but al­so new­com­ers ea­ger to un­der­stand the game. I ap­pre­ci­ate the ex­cite­ment of T20, dream­ing of ex­e­cut­ing the im­pres­sive shots pop­u­larised by play­ers in both men’s and women’s crick­et.

Yet, I was raised in an era where Test crick­et reigned supreme, mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to ac­cept that it might be on the de­cline. I was taught to pick up the line of the ball, move my feet in­to po­si­tion, and play every ball on its mer­it. In T20 crick­et, you just get close to the ball and move your front leg out of the way, and with the bats nowa­days, just get some bat on­to the ball and wait for the com­men­ta­tors to say, “It’s out of here!”.

Re­cent­ly, I at­tend­ed a three-day Test match at Lord’s, where every day saw a full house. It was heart­en­ing to wit­ness the pas­sion for Test crick­et, even if the West In­dies’ per­for­mance was lack­lus­tre, re­sult­ing in a swift con­clu­sion to the match. As one gen­tle­man sit­ting next to me re­marked, “What a pity the West In­dies can’t pro­duce an­oth­er great Test team like those from the ’60s.”

This brings me to the heart of my ar­gu­ment. Two re­cent Test se­ries—In­dia vs New Zealand and Pak­istan vs Eng­land—have show­cased the en­dur­ing ap­peal of Test crick­et, chal­leng­ing the nar­ra­tive that it is some­how ‘dead.’

In the In­dia-New Zealand se­ries, the Ki­wis achieved re­mark­able suc­cess by win­ning both Tests in In­dia. Their tri­umphs—by eight wick­ets in the first Test and by 113 runs in the sec­ond—rep­re­sent some of the best per­for­mances by a New Zealand Test team on In­di­an soil in the last 10 to 15 years. Skit­tling out a full-strength In­di­an side for a mere 46 runs in the first in­nings was sen­sa­tion­al. Af­ter falling be­hind by 356 runs, In­dia made a com­mend­able ef­fort to stage a come­back, reach­ing 433 for 4 in their sec­ond in­nings, but New Zealand ral­lied, claim­ing six wick­ets for just 29 runs to se­cure vic­to­ry.

Ex­pec­ta­tions were high for the sec­ond Test, par­tic­u­lar­ly af­ter In­dia made sev­er­al changes to their line­up. How­ev­er, de­spite boast­ing a for­mi­da­ble bat­ting or­der, In­dia scored on­ly 156 and 245, lead­ing to an­oth­er com­fort­able win for New Zealand. As the third Test ap­proach­es, all eyes will be on how the Ki­wis adapt, know­ing that In­dia will fight hard to avoid a se­ries white­wash in front of their pas­sion­ate fans. This se­ries ex­em­pli­fied a mas­ter­class in Test match crick­et, show­cas­ing New Zealand’s abil­i­ty to adapt to chal­leng­ing con­di­tions and ex­e­cute their game plan with pre­ci­sion.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the Pak­istan-Eng­land se­ries high­light­ed the un­pre­dictable na­ture of Test crick­et. Af­ter an in­nings de­feat in the first Test, Pak­istan en­sured that the pitch­es for the sub­se­quent match­es would favour spin. The first Test at Mul­tan saw Eng­land score an as­ton­ish­ing 823 runs, while Pak­istan, de­spite a com­mend­able 556, was un­able to avoid de­feat.

In the sec­ond Test, Pak­istan’s spin­ners, no­tably Sajid Khan and Nau­man Ali, turned the tide. Their per­for­mances were piv­otal in Eng­land’s col­lapse, demon­strat­ing the ef­fec­tive­ness of spin on a de­te­ri­o­rat­ing pitch.

By the time the third Test rolled around, Eng­land faced even more chal­leng­ing con­di­tions, and their bat­ting line­up strug­gled against the spin duo, los­ing by nine wick­ets. Sajid Khan and Nau­man Ali took 39 of the 40 Eng­lish wick­ets across the two match­es, show­cas­ing the im­por­tance of adapt­ing to home con­di­tions. Eng­land, pre­vi­ous­ly praised for their ag­gres­sive “Bazball” ap­proach, now found them­selves ques­tion­ing the qual­i­ty of their top-or­der bats­men.

In con­trast, the West In­dies con­tin­ue to grap­ple with their own chal­lenges. Their re­cent T20 se­ries against Sri Lan­ka high­light­ed a crit­i­cal is­sue: the in­abil­i­ty to han­dle spin. De­spite an ini­tial ex­plo­sive per­for­mance in the first T20, the team’s weak­ness­es be­came ev­i­dent as the pitch­es turned, un­der­scor­ing the need for im­prove­ment in the longer for­mat. Sri Lan­ka had a won­der­ful pitch for the first T20. The ball was com­ing through straight like an ar­row and Bran­don King and Evin Lewis pul­verised the Sri Lankans but per­haps ex­pect­ed­ly, that was the last we saw of a pitch that did not turn.

To re­build Test crick­et in the West In­dies, a fo­cus on de­vel­op­ing qual­i­ty spin­ners is es­sen­tial. The re­gion’s crick­eters must learn to play against spin ef­fec­tive­ly; oth­er­wise, they will con­tin­ue to strug­gle. The In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Coun­cil (ICC) ex­ac­er­bates the prob­lem, as seen in the stark con­trast in Test match­es played by dif­fer­ent na­tions. For in­stance, while Eng­land has par­tic­i­pat­ed in 19 Test match­es, In­dia 13, and Aus­tralia 12, the West In­dies have on­ly played nine, plac­ing them at the bot­tom of the Test rank­ings. Their soli­tary and sur­prise win against Aus­tralia feels like a dis­tant mem­o­ry, over­shad­owed by six loss­es and two draws.

To ad­dress these chal­lenges, ter­ri­to­r­i­al boards must take a proac­tive ap­proach to nur­tur­ing tal­ent from grass­roots lev­els up to club crick­et. This in­cludes in­vest­ing in play­er de­vel­op­ment and in­fra­struc­ture, en­sur­ing that as­pir­ing crick­eters re­ceive the train­ing and sup­port they need to ex­cel. Un­til the West In­dies can pro­duce play­ers of world-class cal­i­bre, fans may con­tin­ue to per­ceive Test crick­et as ir­rel­e­vant.

As T20 con­tin­ues to cap­ture at­ten­tion, it’s im­por­tant to recog­nise that Test crick­et holds a unique po­si­tion in the sport. It is a true test of skill, en­durance, and men­tal for­ti­tude. The five-day for­mat of­fers a com­pelling nar­ra­tive filled with twists and turns, un­like any oth­er. Each match is a bat­tle be­tween bat and ball, re­quir­ing strate­gic think­ing, adapt­abil­i­ty, and re­silience.

The re­cent suc­cess­es of teams like New Zealand and Pak­istan demon­strate that Test crick­et can still ex­cite and en­gage au­di­ences. Fans crave thrilling nar­ra­tives, and Test crick­et of­fers that in spades. The po­ten­tial for a resur­gence lies in the ded­i­ca­tion of play­ers, coach­es, and ad­min­is­tra­tors to fos­ter the skills and strate­gies that make Test crick­et so spe­cial.

While T20 may be the flavour of the mo­ment, there re­mains a ro­bust com­mu­ni­ty of fans who cher­ish the tra­di­tions of Test crick­et. As long as there are pas­sion­ate sup­port­ers and com­mit­ted play­ers, the for­mat can en­dure. With the right in­vest­ment in play­er de­vel­op­ment and a fo­cus on nur­tur­ing home­grown tal­ent, Test crick­et may yet re­claim its right­ful place as the pin­na­cle of the sport.

In con­clu­sion, let’s not hasti­ly write off Test crick­et. While it may be wound­ed, it is far from dead. With care­ful nur­tur­ing, it can rise from the ash­es and con­tin­ue to be a vi­tal part of the crick­et­ing land­scape. The heart of the game beats strongest in Test match­es, where every ball bowled and every run scored con­tributes to an on­go­ing saga that cap­ti­vates the imag­i­na­tion of crick­et lovers around the world.