How relevant are bilateral T20Is apart from the obvious financial aspects?

[Joseph Gomes]

Australia lost 5 of their previous T20I series, including one against Bangladesh, before winning the 2021 world cup. As we all know, Australia doesn't field their full-strength team in T20Is. Smith/Starc/Cummins/Warner etc miss practically every other T20I series.

Does winning a bilateral T20I series mean anything? Is there any purpose of the format other than $$$? More importantly, should the format be scrapped altogether to make room for longer T20 leagues? A reminder, top players like Kohli sit out 2/3rd of all T2OI series, so most of the famous crickets are already avoiding the format almost entirely.

Btw, every single cricket playing nation has official T20I status, so any T20I stat is already extremely diluted.

 

[TNAmarkFromIndia]

Bilateral cricket in general has no relevance. We should try to reduce it so we can have a longer IPL.

 

[Rana]

No relevance at all unless it’s India v Pakistan for a meaningful series.

Trent Boult is ranked 41 in the ICC T20i rankings. Just goes to show the importance star players give to this format at international level outside besides Pakistan.

 

[gazza619]

Good thread.

Bilateral T20 series is very important for the poorer boards as it brings in revenue.

It is about time though that teams like Pakistan start testing their bench strength in these kind of series.

I would personally be bored if IPL or PSL goes on longer than it already does.

There really isn't much room in the cricket Calendar to do other things. Australia and England are about to start their marathon Ashes series.

 

[Rana]

There is actually nothing to gain from bilateral T20 international. Would much rather prefer those days to be designated for ODIs

 

[gazza619]

There is actually nothing to gain from bilateral T20 international. Would much rather prefer those days to be designated for ODIs

The issue is time.

A lot of times you will see teams scheduled to play 5 T20s in 8-9 days.

It would be a big problem to have 5 ODIs in such a short space of time.

 

[Rana]

The issue is time.

A lot of times you will see teams scheduled to play 5 T20s in 8-9 days.

It would be a big problem to have 5 ODIs in such a short space of time.

They would also have 2/3 ODIs scheduled during the 5 T20i series. That’s where I hope those 3 match ODI series are converted into 5 match ODI series instead with maybe 1 T20i or maximum 2

 

[Joseph Gomes]

I personally would love seeing more ODIs in place of the T2OIs, but that's not gonna happen, given that the number of ODIs is decreasing in favour of T20Is every year. Easier to host low quality T2OI matches with C grade players for 5 T2OIs than 5 ODIs. It costs less and brings just as much revenue.

 

[shamaan]

Need to see more Odi games.

 

[Ab Fan]

Ask KL Rahul.

 

[Technics 1210]

OP asks how relevant are bilateral T20s apart from financial aspects.

Oxymoron if I ever read one. Finances are relevant!

Is a full moon out?

 

[sweep_shot]

Bilateral T20 games used to be quite irrelevant but there is a bit more relevance now after ICC has introduced qualifier round (for World T20).

If you are not among top 8, you have to play in the qualifier round. So, there is something at stake.

 

[jnaveen1980]

T20I has been irrelevant for a long time. It is relevant only during world T20. Soon that will also become irrelevant. We are having a world t20 next year. That is too soon. Also this is a completely lottery format at international level. At league level you can attain some sort of consistency with so many head to head matches. But in a world cup luck plays a big part.

 

[jnaveen1980]

OP asks how relevant are bilateral T20s apart from financial aspects.

Oxymoron if I ever read one. Finances are relevant!

Is a full moon out?

People will lose interest if big tickets go missing. India sent a B team to Srilanka while their main team was playing in England. SL was angry about it. With the amount of worklad 100 will take over and soon will be replaced by 10.

 

[Joseph Gomes]

OP asks how relevant are bilateral T20s apart from financial aspects.

Oxymoron if I ever read one. Finances are relevant!

Is a full moon out?

You can make the same amount of money with more ODIs or and far more with longer T20 leagues. ODIs are not as viable since T2OIs are cheaper to host, but longer T20 leagues are definitely more viable if money is a factor.

The question is, whether existence of bilateral T2OI is justified. Money isn't an issue as you can find alternative. I am sure Indians/Australians would choose IPL/Big Bash over random T2OI series any day. And if you want quality cricket, ODIs still make decent money everywhere.

 

[Marathonrunner]

Bilateral series are very much important as it’s gives platform for budding cricketers to show case their talent. We can see lot of new faces and chances being given to young guns in the ongoing series involving Ind, NZ. Pak and Ban. So it’s vital part

 

[MP2011]

Would much rather prefer those days to be designated for ODIs

ODIs any day over T20s! At least they test a lot of cricketing skills which T20s don't, at least not for a meaningful amount of time.

 

[globalcitizen]

I remember few years back there was tri series tournament mainly and limited bilateral series. So that has more relevance
So the visiting teams play tri series, test series and go back.

But we would still need some cricket other than world cups otherwise you can't assess player performances, fitness and will lead to shoddy performances without much experience behind.

 

[Saurav]

Important for trying players

 

[transparent opacity]

T20Is would have been much relevant if there weren't so many t20s being played.
There was no need to play T20s right after a WC. There should have been some gap in between.

 

[Mesozoic]

India are now 12-3 against New Zealand in bilateral T20s since 2016.

And NZ ended up mauling us in both the T20 world cups since then.

Need I say more?

 

[giri26]

Normally T20I's have no importance except for like everyone said it is a money spinner. But with just 1 year away from another WC, teams need to play some T20Is to come up with the right combinations for the WC. You cannot form a team based on T20 leagues.

 

[gazza619]

Normally T20I's have no importance except for like everyone said it is a money spinner. But with just 1 year away from another WC, teams need to play some T20Is to come up with the right combinations for the WC. You cannot form a team based on T20 leagues.

I would love to see a World T20 league where two teams from each of the top 5 nations compete. Just imagine Karachi, Lahore, Sydney, Perth, Chennai, Mumbai, Surrey, Kent, Cape Town and Durban together..

 

[mazkhan]

Odi cricket is a dead format

Even test cricket is a loss maker unless it's a big series like ashes or involves India


The money and tv friendly format is t20 and the big money is in the t20 leagues like Ipl.

With advent of t20s , quite a few people have called for the 50 over to be scrapped. And Icc to just concentrate on t20s and test cricket

I personally think 50 overs should be scrapped I see no point If you have a much better format in t20.

 

[Afzal_K]

So I live in a small city, I should forever be deprived of watching a T20 live coz it should only be played in a multi-tourney?

When a team tours, it should have complete package - Tests and T20's or ODI's

 

[Afzal_K]

Normally T20I's have no importance except for like everyone said it is a money spinner. But with just 1 year away from another WC, teams need to play some T20Is to come up with the right combinations for the WC. You cannot form a team based on T20 leagues.

Good point, it's a time pass tourney as well, doesn't really make a team great etc..or bragging rights for that day

Nothing like Test matches, but I differ from your team picking. People like Pant who seem like a kid for t20 rocked Australia, the T20 format makes cricketers fearless provided they apply themselves

With the bowling Pakistan has - we should be rocking in Australia as well

 

[Charmander]

I would love to see a World T20 league where two teams from each of the top 5 nations compete. Just imagine Karachi, Lahore, Sydney, Perth, Chennai, Mumbai, Surrey, Kent, Cape Town and Durban together..

Yes and Chris Gayle will play for all the teams

 

[Gayle_Force]

Personally speaking T20 and ODI should be merged into one format consisting of 25 or 30 overs. There are way too many versions of Cricket out there and I think the sport needs to be consolidated.

 

[Giannis]

It's good practice for the world cup, you can't select your best XI unless you've played them together against other international teams.

 

[Joseph Gomes]

It's good practice for the world cup, you can't select your best XI unless you've played them together against other international teams.

Are they really selected based on T20I performance though? Most teams in T20I WC play their best players, who skip 50-80% of the T20I matches