"Test cricket should not be sacrificed at the expense of playing more T20Is" : Inzamam-ul-Haq

[MenInG]

"Test cricket should not be sacrificed at the expense of playing more T20Is" : Inzamam-ul-Haq

Inzamam regarding Pakistan's lack of Test cricket, especially in light of the West Indies tour schedule:

"The focus, currently, is mainly on T20 cricket. It goes for all the teams and players. Yes, I understand that T20 cricket is entertaining and people enjoy watching the format but the real beauty lies in test matches wherein you find out the quality of a batsman. So, that should be surely be maintained"

"T20 cricket entertains people and it should definitely be played but one thing should not be pushed down to bring the other up. Test cricket (and its stature) should remain as it is and you can always bring the standards of T20 cricket up simultaneously"

"But don't end Test cricket and replace it with T20 cricket. If this happens, it will be unfair to both the sport and the players because if the boards devote more focus to T20 cricket over Tests, then the players will also follow the same path. Moreover, even the youngsters and the next crop of cricketers will also start focusing more on T20 cricket from the start.

"If T20 cricket is more entertaining and gets you more money, sure, do it. But not at the cost of Test cricket. It shouldn't be the case that you are reducing a three-match series to two Tests and increasing a three-match T20I series to five. The board shouldn't send out a message that players should play on T20 cricket and that T20 is of prime importance to us."

"I don’t mind if they want to play more T20Is for practice or money but Test cricket should not be sacrificed for this, if you remember that when Amir decided to retire from Test cricket, he faced a lot of criticism for preferring T20Is and league cricket over Test matches. The same happened with Wahab Riaz as well. But now the board is giving the same message by replacing Test matches with T20Is. How can you stop the players from quitting Test cricket, in the future, if you are pursuing the same line of thought?”

“I request the ICC and other boards to stop running after money because when the players will adopt the same approach, you will get hurt"

“If you wanted more practice for T20 World Cup, we should have asked them for T20Is without reducing Test matches. If you ignore Test matches, it will hurt our cricket in the long run. Even if Pakistan didn’t get more T20I matches against West Indies, we still would have had enough practice with matches scheduled against England and New Zealand"

 

[Shoaibbtt]

Inzamam regarding Pakistan's lack of Test cricket, especially in light of the West Indies tour schedule:

"The focus, currently, is mainly on T20 cricket. It goes for all the teams and players. Yes, I understand that T20 cricket is entertaining and people enjoy watching the format but the real beauty lies in test matches wherein you find out the quality of a batsman. So, that should be surely be maintained"

"T20 cricket entertains people and it should definitely be played but one thing should not be pushed down to bring the other up. Test cricket (and its stature) should remain as it is and you can always bring the standards of T20 cricket up simultaneously"

"But don't end Test cricket and replace it with T20 cricket. If this happens, it will be unfair to both the sport and the players because if the boards devote more focus to T20 cricket over Tests, then the players will also follow the same path. Moreover, even the youngsters and the next crop of cricketers will also start focusing more on T20 cricket from the start.

"If T20 cricket is more entertaining and gets you more money, sure, do it. But not at the cost of Test cricket. It shouldn't be the case that you are reducing a three-match series to two Tests and increasing a three-match T20I series to five. The board shouldn't send out a message that players should play on T20 cricket and that T20 is of prime importance to us."

"I don’t mind if they want to play more T20Is for practice or money but Test cricket should not be sacrificed for this, if you remember that when Amir decided to retire from Test cricket, he faced a lot of criticism for preferring T20Is and league cricket over Test matches. The same happened with Wahab Riaz as well. But now the board is giving the same message by replacing Test matches with T20Is. How can you stop the players from quitting Test cricket, in the future, if you are pursuing the same line of thought?”

“I request the ICC and other boards to stop running after money because when the players will adopt the same approach, you will get hurt"

“If you wanted more practice for T20 World Cup, we should have asked them for T20Is without reducing Test matches. If you ignore Test matches, it will hurt our cricket in the long run. Even if Pakistan didn’t get more T20I matches against West Indies, we still would have had enough practice with matches scheduled against England and New Zealand"

I heard about this, it just goes to show the lack of respect for test cricket. Whether this is Pakistan that denied to play that 3rd test or WI? Who knows. However, you have bags of t20 cricket coming up in PSL, WI tour, England tour and more. Why?????

 

[street cricketer]

Brave of Pakistan to cut one test from a 3 test series and substitute it with T20s instead in the context of the WTC. Two test series are very risky, you might get easy points if the opposition is weak but any slip up will be far more costly in a two test series as opposed to a five test series.

India were bossing the WTC since the start but suddenly suffered a massive blow to their final chances in the span of two tests in New Zealand. They then had to play out of their skins and pull out a once in a generation performance in Australia and still had to beat England to make the final. Pakistan, if by chance slips up against the Windies, will suffer a significant blow to their WTC final chances and so they have to be at their best in both tests given it's a two test series.

 

[BunnyRabbit]

His comments connecting Wahab and Amir's test retirements and Pak playing more t20is doesn't really make any sense to me. Replacement of a test with 1 or 2 t20is is lesser workload, so test retirements due to workload management makes even less sense if there is any.

With WI making pacy wickets at home for tests for last 2-3 years and having good success with it, I am seeing WI favorites for the test series. But it's easier to draw or win a 2 test series than a 3 test series.

 

[Saurav]

Brave of Pakistan to cut one test from a 3 test series and substitute it with T20s instead in the context of the WTC. Two test series are very risky, you might get easy points if the opposition is weak but any slip up will be far more costly in a two test series as opposed to a five test series.

India were bossing the WTC since the start but suddenly suffered a massive blow to their final chances in the span of two tests in New Zealand. They then had to play out of their skins and pull out a once in a generation performance in Australia and still had to beat England to make the final. Pakistan, if by chance slips up against the Windies, will suffer a significant blow to their WTC final chances and so they have to be at their best in both tests given it's a two test series.

they still have a chance?

 

[Farabi]

His comments connecting Wahab and Amir's test retirements and Pak playing more t20is doesn't really make any sense to me. Replacement of a test with 1 or 2 t20is is lesser workload, so test retirements due to workload management makes even less sense if there is any.

With WI making pacy wickets at home for tests for last 2-3 years and having good success with it, I am seeing WI favorites for the test series. But it's easier to draw or win a 2 test series than a 3 test series.

They connect really well! On the one hand, PCB coaches make demonizing comments about Amir when he prefers T20s over Test cricket ("he wants to play T20s leagues, he doesn't want to play for test cricket blah blah", "he is just interested in money"). On the other hand, PCB scheduling shows preference for T2Os over test cricket for monetary reasons.
"Yeh khula tazaad nahi tu kya hai?"

 

[cricketAXEpert]

Inzamam regarding Pakistan's lack of Test cricket, especially in light of the West Indies tour schedule:

"The focus, currently, is mainly on T20 cricket. It goes for all the teams and players. Yes, I understand that T20 cricket is entertaining and people enjoy watching the format but the real beauty lies in test matches wherein you find out the quality of a batsman. So, that should be surely be maintained"

"T20 cricket entertains people and it should definitely be played but one thing should not be pushed down to bring the other up. Test cricket (and its stature) should remain as it is and you can always bring the standards of T20 cricket up simultaneously"

"But don't end Test cricket and replace it with T20 cricket. If this happens, it will be unfair to both the sport and the players because if the boards devote more focus to T20 cricket over Tests, then the players will also follow the same path. Moreover, even the youngsters and the next crop of cricketers will also start focusing more on T20 cricket from the start.

"If T20 cricket is more entertaining and gets you more money, sure, do it. But not at the cost of Test cricket. It shouldn't be the case that you are reducing a three-match series to two Tests and increasing a three-match T20I series to five. The board shouldn't send out a message that players should play on T20 cricket and that T20 is of prime importance to us."

"I don’t mind if they want to play more T20Is for practice or money but Test cricket should not be sacrificed for this, if you remember that when Amir decided to retire from Test cricket, he faced a lot of criticism for preferring T20Is and league cricket over Test matches. The same happened with Wahab Riaz as well. But now the board is giving the same message by replacing Test matches with T20Is. How can you stop the players from quitting Test cricket, in the future, if you are pursuing the same line of thought?”

“I request the ICC and other boards to stop running after money because when the players will adopt the same approach, you will get hurt"

“If you wanted more practice for T20 World Cup, we should have asked them for T20Is without reducing Test matches. If you ignore Test matches, it will hurt our cricket in the long run. Even if Pakistan didn’t get more T20I matches against West Indies, we still would have had enough practice with matches scheduled against England and New Zealand"

Why? we need to play more tests desperately. But of course PCB is too dumb to understand this. They just like more Masala T20 Cricket. Pakpassion should start a campaign for Test cricket.

 

[BaankeJi]

Brave of Pakistan to cut one test from a 3 test series and substitute it with T20s instead in the context of the WTC. Two test series are very risky, you might get easy points if the opposition is weak but any slip up will be far more costly in a two test series as opposed to a five test series.

India were bossing the WTC since the start but suddenly suffered a massive blow to their final chances in the span of two tests in New Zealand. They then had to play out of their skins and pull out a once in a generation performance in Australia and still had to beat England to make the final. Pakistan, if by chance slips up against the Windies, will suffer a significant blow to their WTC final chances and so they have to be at their best in both tests given it's a two test series.

Indian chances suffered because ICC changed rule in the middle of WTC.

On topic, Inzy has a point. PCB could have asked for more T20Is instead of cutting tests. Or maybe PCB asked but there was no space in packed schedule.

 

[ChTab]

A really stupid decision from both boards. The 3 match series would've been so awesome.

 

[Bhaijaan]

Really unfortunate stuff because unlike some other mid card teams, Pakistan is capable of performing at a high level in test cricket. They must play as much test cricket as they can but them taking another route is just sad as a fan.

Having said that regular T20 certainly has taken over regular 50 overs cricket for me.

Only for a world cup am I more hyped for 50-50s

 

[Ab Fan]

T20 cricket should be shelved.

A cricket format where Pollard and Russell are considered far superior cricketers to Smith, Root, Williamson, Babar and Manish Pandey shouldn't be considered proper cricket.

 

[TheNightWatchman]

T20 cricket should be shelved.

A cricket format where Pollard and Russell are considered far superior cricketers to Smith, Root, Williamson, Babar and Manish Pandey shouldn't be considered proper cricket.

It shouldn't be shelved. Just should be kept seperate from test. I remember Aus playing a T20 and test on the same day. The lineups were almost completely seperate and different.
You could argue T20s are not cricket. It's just a completely different game. It doesn't mean it is worthless. In a sort of sense T20s and tests are competing with each other in popularity. My only vendetta is that one should not give way to the other.
T20s shouldn't give way to tests and tests shouldn't give way for T20.

 

[Ab Fan]

It shouldn't be shelved. Just should be kept seperate from test. I remember Aus playing a T20 and test on the same day. The lineups were almost completely seperate and different.
You could argue T20s are not cricket. It's just a completely different game. It doesn't mean it is worthless. In a sort of sense T20s and tests are competing with each other in popularity. <B>My only vendetta is that one should not give way to the other.
T20s shouldn't give way to tests and tests shouldn't give way for T20</B>.

One format will surely affect the other one. They simply can't be mutually exclusive and still exist. Cricketers will retire from tests early and focus on T20s because test cricket is a lot more demanding.

The financial benefits of cricketers can be covered through these T20 leagues but the privilege of representing your country in international cricket is special so it shouldn't be just based on T20s because that is not the purest form of cricket. The purest form is test cricket and when cricketers will be aware of that, they will push themselves for that. Or else they will represent their country in T20s only and push themselves for these T20 leagues because the financial benefits is huge.

 

[Ab Fan]

As an example, a teenager in India who is struggling to make it big in cricket, what will he think?

Should be work hard and push himself to become a test cricketer like Pujara or should he just improve his T20 hitting and make himself good enough for IPL and just push himself in T20 format?

That teenager would look for a shortcut method and only focus his T20 game because then he can also represent his team in T20Is and get a tag of "international cricketer" and also earn a million dollar contract every year through these leagues. He would simply not be motivated enough to play test cricket and push himself for that format because the financial incentives are better in this shortcut method.

 

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

As an example, a teenager in India who is struggling to make it big in cricket, what will he think?

Should be work hard and push himself to become a test cricketer like Pujara or should he just improve his T20 hitting and make himself good enough for IPL and just push himself in T20 format?

That teenager would look for a shortcut method and only focus his T20 game because then he can also represent his team in T20Is and get a tag of "international cricketer" and also earn a million dollar contract every year through these leagues. He would simply not be motivated enough to play test cricket and push himself for that format because the financial incentives are better in this shortcut method.

You are right. And the bolded part reminds me of Hardik Pandya.

 

[Ab Fan]

You are right. And the bolded part reminds me of Hardik Pandya.

Except that Pandya is having an injury and hence not want to suffer a career threatening injury.

 

[street cricketer]

T20 cricket should be shelved.

A cricket format where Pollard and Russell are considered far superior cricketers to Smith, Root, Williamson, Babar and Manish Pandey shouldn't be considered proper cricket.

Nicely done

 

[Firebat]

PCB are clearly focused on becoming a T20 nation. The numbers of T20Is scheduled a year is far overboard, and if I remember correctly, more than any other country. Yet, with all those matches, we are hardly world-beaters. It's painful watching us try to get past Zimbabwe and South Africa B. It's laughable.

Such a mindset from the PCB will shackle us from ever improving as a Test team and consequently improve our status as a cricketing nation.

 

[MenInG]

Clearly Inzamam enjoying his role in T20 cricket!

 

[MenInG]

Not enjoying...

 

[MenInG]

This sort of match can put people off Test cricket - no appetite for this kind of game play.

==

Test cricket is not just a contest between the bat and the ball, but it’s also a test of patience and temperament of the players. Building an innings in Test cricket is a different game from fast-paced white-ball cricket. In more important to leave the right deliveries than attacking the loose ones because when you are looking to build a game for 5 days, you cannot let the greed of hitting a loose shot get over you.

While we are used to seeing slow innings in Tests, the 3rd day of the 3rd test between Pakistan and England at Headingley in 1971 was something else. The snail pace batting by both the teams got the day registered in history as the slowest day of Test cricket in England. The star-studded batting line-ups only managed to score 159 runs in 107.4 overs that were delivered that day.

When the Pakistani started off the day with their previous score of 208/4, they were looking to slowly take forward their scorecard. However, this effort to be cautious turned the day too slow for the spectators who had come out to witness an eventful day on a Saturday.

Batting for the most part of the day, the Pakistani batting line-up added only 142 runs before getting all out for 350 runs. The tight bowling from the English bowlers had tied the hands of Pakistani batsmen. In reply, England added 17 runs at the loss of one wicket before the end.

However, when the teams returned to the field after the rest days the match turned interesting. The fourth day was completely different, and England managed to add 247 runs to their tally before getting all out at the score of 264. Pakistan now needed 231 runs to win the watch and before 4th the day ended, they already had 25 runs on board.

But the English bowlers looked in their colour on the last days and bundled the Pakistani team at 205 sealing a 25-run victory over the visitors.

https://www.news18.com/cricketnext/...england-159-runs-off-107-4-overs-3946421.html

 

[MenInG]

Wasim Khan speaking to PakPassion.net

PakPassion.net: There are some allegations that the PCB is overlooking the importance of Test cricket. What’s your response?

Wasim Khan: We want to be successful in Test cricket which is the pinnacle of this sport for every country. If you ask most cricket fans, they will agree with this sentiment and say that Test cricket is critical and important for us. So, playing more Test cricket is really important in our point of view but there’s a misconception amongst some that we reduced one Test on the tour of the Caribbean in favour of playing more T20Is. The bottom line is Cricket West Indies (CWI) is struggling financially at the moment and holding an additional Test match would have cost them a huge amount of money. So, we’ve tried to support each other particularly with South Africa and West Indies who along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have been huge supporters of Pakistan in the past. When CWI’s request came, we did push back to keep it as 3 Tests but then we backed off as we also understood that this demand was not financially viable for them and we certainly didn’t want to put them in a tough position. It wasn’t just done to add more T20Is as we don’t receive a single penny when we visit other countries for playing more T20Is. After all, it’s their home series not ours. There were misconceptions that we did it for money which is completely wrong because there is no monetary gain in it for us at all.

 

[sweep_shot]

I agree with Inzamam that Test should be #1 priority. However, T20 cricket unfortunately may damage Test further.

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is painful to tweet but I think this is slowly happening…<br>In 2026 there will only be a few Test Match cricketing nations. <br>ENGLAND <br>INDIA<br>AUSTRALIA <br>Possibly SOUTH AFRICA & PAKISTAN. <br>&#55357;&#56384;</p>— Kevin Pietersen&#55358;&#56719; (@KP24) <a href="https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1434116477955813376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[shortbread]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is painful to tweet but I think this is slowly happening…<br>In 2026 there will only be a few Test Match cricketing nations. <br>ENGLAND <br>INDIA<br>AUSTRALIA <br>Possibly SOUTH AFRICA & PAKISTAN. <br>&#55357;&#56384;</p>— Kevin Pietersen&#55358;&#56719; (@KP24) <a href="https://twitter.com/KP24/status/1434116477955813376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

NZ will always be a competitive test side.