Why are counter attacking innings gone from Test cricket?

[sam_ahm]

I was thinking that it is very rare these days that you see a counter attacking knock in test cricket.

Many times in the past we used to see a team after 4 or 5 wickets down, could often counter attack and the game used to get interesting... These days it is almost same type of players that play tests. Anyone who is of attacking nature is termed as a T20 or LOI specialist.

Gilchrist, Andrew Flintoff, Chris Cairns, Lance Klusener, Andrew Symonds, Abdul Razzak, Shaun Pollock, Shahid Afridi, K Akmal, Many such players came lower down the order and changed the game.

Even some top order batsmen like Jayasuriya, Hayden, Gayle, Ponting, Peterson played fast paced innings. Remember Nathan Astle's fastest ever 200 against England?

I can only remember a few knocks, Ben Stokes in that 2019 Ashes test, Kusal Perera in that 1 wicket win over RSA (He didn't have an option) , Rishabh Pant recently in AUS, but otherwise, counter attacking is rare these days.

 

[sam_ahm]

Even when a team batting first has scored 500, these days the immidieate mentality is to defend and save the game.

The likes of Sehwag, Jayasuriya, Hayden used to wipe off a chunk of the deficit quicklyany time and it was game on, that is also counter attack... I miss those kind of players in tests now.

 

[shah_1]

India have Pant , what a game changer he is in the team.

We need a Haider Ali type player in the team, can't have all tuk tuks. He recently scored a very fast double hundred in first class

 

[Varun]

What about Rishabh Pant in the 4th innings at Sydney?

If he had kept going, we would have won.

 

[MP2011]

I was thinking that it is very rare these days that you see a counter attacking knock in test cricket.

Many times in the past we used to see a team after 4 or 5 wickets down, could often counter attack and the game used to get interesting... These days it is almost same type of players that play tests. Anyone who is of attacking nature is termed as a T20 or LOI specialist.

Gilchrist, Andrew Flintoff, Chris Cairns, Lance Klusener, Andrew Symonds, Abdul Razzak, Shaun Pollock, Shahid Afridi, K Akmal, Many such players came lower down the order and changed the game.

Even some top order batsmen like Jayasuriya, Hayden, Gayle, Ponting, Peterson played fast paced innings. Remember Nathan Astle's fastest ever 200 against England?

I can only remember a few knocks, Ben Stokes in that 2019 Ashes test, Kusal Perera in that 1 wicket win over RSA (He didn't have an option) , Rishabh Pant recently in AUS, but otherwise, counter attacking is rare these days.

Hardik played one such innings (90-odd) during our last tour to SA.

 

[sam_ahm]

What about Rishabh Pant in the 4th innings at Sydney?

If he had kept going, we would have won.

I mentioned Pant. My point is lack of intent amongst players even the likes of De Kock, Buttler, etc who are known to score fast and the general trend of having same type of players in test team.

A lot of all rounders and fast scoring players getting dubbed as T20 specialists and not getting tried out in tests. Mostly all similar type of players who can't counter attack or a few who can also don't do it anymore.

 

[Last Monetarist]

Jos Buttler against Pakistan at Old Trafford last year was a classic counterattacking innings, probably the only time in his test career though.

 

[Smudger]

Steve Smith 140 odd in the last ashes 1st match and mathew wade 100 in 2nd innings of that match were both good counter attack innings.
Ab played about 3 counter attack inmings vs Ind and Aus before retiring.
Babar scored a very good 70 odd vs Sa in 2019

 

[Nikhil_cric]

I was thinking that it is very rare these days that you see a counter attacking knock in test cricket.

Many times in the past we used to see a team after 4 or 5 wickets down, could often counter attack and the game used to get interesting... These days it is almost same type of players that play tests. Anyone who is of attacking nature is termed as a T20 or LOI specialist.

Gilchrist, Andrew Flintoff, Chris Cairns, Lance Klusener, Andrew Symonds, Abdul Razzak, Shaun Pollock, Shahid Afridi, K Akmal, Many such players came lower down the order and changed the game.

Even some top order batsmen like Jayasuriya, Hayden, Gayle, Ponting, Peterson played fast paced innings. Remember Nathan Astle's fastest ever 200 against England?

I can only remember a few knocks, Ben Stokes in that 2019 Ashes test, Kusal Perera in that 1 wicket win over RSA (He didn't have an option) , Rishabh Pant recently in AUS, but otherwise, counter attacking is rare these days.

Conditions were less bowling friendly in the 2005-2015 as per CricViz. Pitches tend to favour bowlers nowadays and therefore it's harder to pull off that kind of counter attacking innings consistently nowadays

 

[Corridor of Uncertainty]

This is an intelligent thread in my opinion. Something new to look at.

Agree with OP. You see those in white ball all the time. Is it because in test cricket, players are clearly demarcating the format in their minds when previously they didn’t have to because shorter formats didn’t exist or weren’t as well developed? Previously players thought “I have to get on top of the situation and trust my game.” Now they think “I have to play with caution because that’s what I have been taught test cricket is” or “I don’t have the game to play aggressively without taking undue risks”.

New players I feel are also over coached or much more minutely monitored by both coaches and public with wall to wall coverage.

 

[gazza619]

Good point. I don’t think I enjoyed test cricket as much as I did when Shahid Afridi was booming against India.

What options do we have now? Even Haider Ali plays in a very calculative way.

 

[Unbiased-Fan]

Kusal Perera vs RSA, 2019
Ben Stokes vs Aus, 2019
Rishabh Pant vs Aus, 2020
Kusal Mendis vs Aus, 2016
Dinesh Chandimal vs Ind, 2015
Kevin Pietersen vs Ind, 2012
Shikhar Dhawan vs Aus, 2013

Above are some notable counter attacking knocks in recent times.

 

[James]

Jos Buttler against Pakistan at Old Trafford last year was a classic counterattacking innings, probably the only time in his test career though.

Agree.

Jos actually played quite well yesterday in Brisbane, took the game to the Australian bowlers with an aggressive approach and some crunching boundaries. A great shame that it all ended on 39 for him. So much potential in Tests for him still.

 

[pratiktc]

Very difficult to play counter attacking inns on pitches which are helping seamers nowadays.
In last 10-12 yrs only Clarke probably has played multiple such inns in away Tests.

Unless batsman has a lot of luck (like Kohli in Edgbaston 2018) such style of batting simply not able to last on helpful wkts

 

[jnaveen1980]

Kusal Perera vs RSA, 2019
Ben Stokes vs Aus, 2019
Rishabh Pant vs Aus, 2020
Kusal Mendis vs Aus, 2016
Dinesh Chandimal vs Ind, 2015
Kevin Pietersen vs Ind, 2012
Shikhar Dhawan vs Aus, 2013

Above are some notable counter attacking knocks in recent times.

I would add Thakur's cameo to that list. 57 of 36 balls when India was at 117/6

 

[BunnyRabbit]

Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla in 3rd test 2012 against Australia.
Fakhar Zaman's 66 against Australia in UAE on test debut.
BMac's double and Kane's 192 in 3rd Test vs Pak in UAE 2014

Tim Paine played a good little gem last year against india in the first test.

Graeme Smith and Michael Clarke were very good exponents of counter attack.