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Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17 Evolution of in the Last Two Decades

Tamal Chatterjee1,Shiny Raizada2*, Rupkatha Chatterjee3,Sayan Saha4,Biswadeep Sarkar5and Shohag Bardhan6

1,3,4,5,6Student, MBA, 2Assistant Professor, Symbiosis School of Sciences, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), , ,

*Corresponding author: [email protected] (Raizada)

Abstract Background: The objective of the research is to study the change in test cricket before and after the introduction of several T20 leagues. Test cricket is the oldest format of the which challenges a player in terms of mental toughness, physical fitness skill and ability.Methods: Quantitative analysis was done the basis of a few factors, which included overseas performance, runs scored by boundaries, rate, etc. Data was taken from several online websites and MS- Excel was used to change that unstructured to structured data.Conclusion: Further analysis of the data was done and was represented graphically. On the basis of the above factors, the statistical analysis of the data showed a significant difference between these two decades (2000-2009 and 2010-2019).

Keywords: Data comparison, Overseas performance, Test Cricket, T20

How to cite this article: Chatterjee T, Raizada S, et al (2020): Evolution of Test cricket in the last two decades, Ann Trop Med & Public Health; 23(S17): SP231749. DOI: http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

1.Introduction: Originally derived from the “creag”, the game of Cricket was created in the south east part of . The development of the primitive style cricket took place in the 17th , but no major investments were evidenced during this period into the game. It was in the 18th century the game gained traction in the population. Press and media were on their feet by this time, but mainly focused on gambling related to the rather than the . Cricket was introduced beyond America mainly by the colonization process. The first venue for the game was , England. The cricket clubs in gained extreme popularity and the game spread like wildfire mainly by the 18th century.

The world witnessed the first ever international match in the year 1844. It was played between the US and Canada in New York. Cricket gained further attention in 1909 with Imperial Cricket Conference. Many countries slowly went ahead and became a part of the growth of Test Cricket. This form of cricket was standardized the highest form of cricket since the 20th century. ICC (International Cricket Council) determines the test status of the national teams, based on which Test matches are executed between the teams each consisting of 11 players, which generally lasts for a period of 5 days. It is the longest match duration form of this sport.

In the year 2012 ICC reformed the Test rules permitting day and night matches. It was for the first time evidenced between and at Oval, Adelaide in the year in 2015. It is in the recent past that ICC has considered the plan of executing a day 4- day Test match compulsory for the ICC World Test Championship 2023. No World Cup for this form has taken place yet.

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

The shorter form of this sport is known as T20 or Twenty-20 cricket. It originated in the year 2003 and the rules were set to give each of two teams are given of 20 overs. The game is much shorter and is finished with the period of three hours. It is a much faster form of the game thus making it more attractive for the viewers due to the format. The first ever T20 International was held on 5th August, 2004 between the women’s team of England and New Zealand. On 17th February 2005, the first men’s international T20 match was played between Australia and New Zealand. This format gained popularity in late 2000’s with the start of different T20 Leagues. The game is more explosive and sturdier format of the primitive game. The contest between the bat and the has now changed into a contest between six hitting and in-swinging (1).Strategies that a team adopts largely depend on the rules and format of the game, and interestingly, facts show that both Test and ODIs have had their own share of several modifications so that it becomes more oriented, increase viewership and ultimately to generate more revenue. Further in future several changes have been made to the game to make it more result oriented. For example in the early days Test cricket did not have a stipulated time (therefore referred to as timeless) and it only used to end when either of the playing team won the match and thus, declaration of an was never really considered in those era(2).In the year 1930’s the timeless format of the game was abolished and thus declaration with follow-on was introduced in the newer five-day format of Test-cricket. Since Test matches are played a span of multiple days, it was not viewer friendly and that led to the introduction of limited over cricket in the 1970’s(2).

As the years went by performance, , cricket equipments, technology, playing surface, viewership and the three formats of the game also adapted to the laws(3). The sport has gained intense coverage and viewership increased with the change of format to a shorter time period. Innovation and technology took over the field with in-depth statistical and graphical analysis techniques along with cameras spread out at several angles to provide a detailed and clear view of every aspect of the game. Hawk-eye technology, high speed photography and computer graphics makes the game much intense prevent in the slightest of the disputes that can take place. This sports by far hold the biggest market in India with millions of sports fanatics all over the nation. The Indian cricket fraternity is held together by Board of control for (BCCI) which is termed richest board all over the globe. India has a rich cricket history with historic players who have the change being born in this nation.

Over the past 2 decades, there have been significant changes made to international cricket. As it was mentioned earlier, till the mid 2000s ODI and tests were the only 2 formats of cricket played at the international level, but, the introduction of the shorter and faster T20 format has changed cricket as we used to know it. Nowadays, the bats are bigger and stronger than those used earlier. Boundaries are also smaller which gives an added advantage to quick runs(3). Hitting the ball across the park for more runs had become the new normal and with the introduction of deep-pocketed IPL and other T20 leagues the ideology of players has also changed, so has the way the game has been played in other formats.

Women’s cricket have gained much popularity over the last two decades but in the form of shorter formats that is ODIs and T20s. Shorter formats tends to be an obvious choice when to comes to women cricket because of the less participation and viewership as well. Not much development has gone through when it comes to women’s test cricket. An international series will typically be contested through various shorter format , perhaps with a token of test match(4).

Young cricketers who aspire to be a part of the national cricket team tend to choose the shortest format of the game to showcase their talent. Even several established players take early retirement to focus more on shorter formats of the game(2). Several T20 leagues around the globe provide a

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17 world class platform for budding cricketers. As young cricketers are more inclined towards T20 cricket, this directly impacts on development of State Level Cricket (, , etc.) where most of the games happen on a four day or a five day basis. When players were surveyed regarding the concerns, most of them said their main career motive is to get an IPL contract(5). The rise in the popularity of the shorter formats has had a fundamental impact on the game of cricket as a whole (6).

The main objective of the study is to compare the test cricket in the last 2 decades where we can see various changes in the approach of the game before the introduction of the T20 format and its aftermath. The test cricket is not dying but people’s taste and preferences are changing(7).

The author has gathered data from the past two decades to study and analyze the changes in the approach and performance of the teams towards Test cricket which includes the match results, change in , runs scored in different innings etc. Many studies conclude that in cricket batting dominates more than (8). Test cricket is changing with time, of drawn games is less now i.e more results (win or loss), and trends in terms of more boundaries, batting contribution of the lower order batsmen, runs scored per etc are changing(9).

The introduction of T20 format in the past few years has changed a lot of prospects. It is now evident that the oldest form of cricket is now in danger and with more nation now playing shorter and exciting form of T20(5). This study would benefit small and upcoming lower tier and associate teams such as , , , Scotland and many others who have started their journey with other formats of the game, but, might take the leap towards test cricket. Conditioning coaches try to balance the amount of conditioning and recovery as players tend to play single day or multiple day of cricket(10). With the help of this research, those teams would be a better understanding of the current scenario and gauge the earlier aspects of Test cricket and get benefitted by the same.

2. Material & methods:

2.1. Selction of the Subjects and variables:All the test playing nations according to recent ICC Test Cricket Rankings, Australia, New Zealand, India, England, , South , , and were the subjects in this research.The variable upon which the subjects were analyzed are the average runs scored per innings and its percentage change in last two decades, percentage of boundaries and over boundaries and its percentage change in last two decades, overseas performance, run rate and match results.

2.2. Data Collection:After the selection of subjects and variables, secondary data of the entire test matches from 2000 to 2019 has been gathered from stats.espncricinfo.com. The unstructured data was further converted to structured data in MS-Excel and a data of 899 test matches of 9 teams were listed.

2.3. Statistical Analysis:MS Excel was used to statistically analyze the gathered data. It was analyzed in terms of the selected variables and the changes were noted down.

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

3. Results and Discussion:

Table 1. Total matches played and their outcomes

Analysis: All the results of the matches played between 2000-2009 and 2010-2019 by the teams, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, , Sri Lanka, West Indies were gathered. It was found that in the 2000’s the number of matches drawn was just 219 out of 885 matches, i.e. almost 25% of the matches ended without a proper result (win/loss). But the 2010-2019, the number of drawn matches has reduced to quite a good extent. 157 out of 837 matches ended as a draw, i.e. 19% of the total matches.

Table 2. Run Rate

Table 2 shows the average run rate of each innings of the teams for the two decades. On the basis of this data, the author have come to a conclusion about how the average run rate has changed with time and introduction of shorter formats of the game. It is clearly visible that the innings wise run rate is more stable and uniform in 2010-2019.

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

Table 3 : Percentage change in run rate

In most of the cases, as it can be seen that in the first three innings most of the teams have a significant increase in the average run rate. In both 1st and 2nd innings, 5(negative) out of 9 teams have shown a steady increase, whereas in the 3rd innings 8(negative) out of 9 teams have shown a steady increase in the run rate. One of the factors affecting this is the introduction of the T20 format. It is a very rare sight to see someone hitting a delicate straight drive, as batsmen is now more into hitting sixes out of the park. A significant increase of run rate of almost 60% of the teams in almost every innings clearly supports the point how T20 affected Test cricket. It is also clearly evident from the table that there is a significant decrease in the run rate of the 4th innings of 8 out of 9, but a 4th innings of a match depends on several other factors which are beyond the scope of this research.

5 4

3 1st Innings 2 2nd Innings 1 3rd Innings 0 4th Innings

Figure 1: Run rate chart for the year 2000 to 2009

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

4 3,5 3 2,5 1st Innings 2 1,5 2nd Innings 1 3rd Innings 0,5 0 4th Innings

Figure 2: Run rate chart for the year 2000 to 2009

Figure 1 and 2 shows about the uniformity of the run rates of different teams in different innings. In the 2000-2019 the run rates of the different innings are very close to each other whereas in 2000-2009 run rates are not uniform. This clearly indicates a change in the pattern of play in most of the top tier teams.

Table 4. Comparison of percentage change in boundaries of last two decades (Home and away)

With the introduction of different T20 leagues, batsmen are now more aggressive. There is a tendency of hitting more boundaries and over boundaries, in order to score quick runs in the shorter format of the game. This tendency of hitting big shots and scoring runs quickly make them more aggressive naturally which effects their playing style and approach towards other . As it can be seen from the table that boundaries hit has reduced in the later decade and but a steady increase in sixes can be noticed in 2010-19. This is because cricketers nowadays tend to score quick runs which can only be done by increasing the number of sixes. 9 out of 9 teams have shown reduced score by boundaries in home games but again 6 out those 9 teams have also showed increased score by sixes between these two decades. The scenario was more or less similar in case of away games as well, 7 out of 9 teams have shown reduced score by boundaries but 6 out of those 9 teams have also shown an increased score by sixes.

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

500 450 400 350 300 250 1st Innings 200 2nd Innings 150 100 3rd Innings 50 4th Innings 0

Figure 3: Average score of innings chart for the year 2000 to 2009

500 450 400 350 300 250 1st Innings 200 2nd Innings 150 100 3rd Innings 50 4th Innings 0

Figure 4: Average score of innings chart for the year 2010 to 2019

The introduction of T20 format has not only changed the match results, run rates, overseas performance etc. but also has also affected the average runs scored in an innings. From figure 3 and 4, it is seen that in first innings 78% of times the scored has decreased compared to the past decade and in 56% of times, the average 2nd innings scored has decreased. Similarly, in the 3rd innings 56% times the score has decreased. In the fourth innings, surprisingly it got increased by 56%. In the top tier teams as Australia, New Zealand, India, England, it is noticed that in 57% cases the score has decreased but the lower tier teams has only 55% of score has decreased. The problem is when the runs decrease; it falls directly whereas for the top tier teams it falls gradually.

Table 5. Overseas Performance

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

We can see from the Table 5 that except Bangladesh, South Africa and West Indies has not played equal number of matches unlike other teams who have played almost equal number of matches. We can also see a more decisive version of test cricket in the later decade as less matches finish as a draw. It can be seen that in 2010-19 decade more than 90% of the teams has lost more tests than they did in the previous decade. This might indicate that teams are focusing more on other formats of the game rather that test cricket. Players nowadays are more comfortable playing the short format than the long tactical format of the game.

Table 6. Rate of change of win, loss and draw percentages in last 2 decades in away games.

Matches in the later decade became more decisive. As the researcher could see a percentage decrease in the drawn matches it was clearly visible. The lost percentage increased for more or less all the teams. Few matches ended as a draw when compared to the results of earlier decade.

Table 7. Win By Innings

Teams in the later decade has less number of wins by innings, almost 7 out 9 teams have less innings win compared to the 1st decade. This shows how the teams have gradually increased their competitiveness. This can only make test cricket exciting and watchful.

When compared between the two decades (2000s and 2010s) it was noticed that the matches drawn were much less in the latter. Thus we can conclude that matches were much more decisive in 2010- 2019, and that is because of the effect of the shorter formats of the game.

Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

Chattterjee et al (2020): Evolution of test cricket Nov 2020 Vol. 23 Issue 17

It was observed that the percentage change in the run rate in the first 3 innings hadsignificantly increased. This was because with the increase in popularity of the shorter formats of the game, players got to play more matches than the previous decade. T20 means scoring quick runs playing as fewer as possible, and many players did not have that ability to shift their batting styles according to the game in a short period of time. When a team goes for a series to some other country, they generally play all the 3 formats T20, ODI and Test. More T20 games had changed their way of batting, the skill of defensive batting by players like Dravid, VVS Laxman, could hardly be seen. Batsmen in 2010-2019 were into more aggressive style of playing be it a Test match or a T20 game(8).

With the introduction of different T20 leagues, batsmen became more aggressive as we had discussed earlier as well. There was a tendency of hitting more boundaries and over boundaries, in order to score quick runs. This tendency of hitting big shorts made them more aggressive naturally which can be seen by their batting in other formats of the game.

Decrease in the average score of an innings could predict a lot of factors such as better bowling, too aggressive game play resulting in losses of , less patience what's more required in Test, more pressure of matches throughout the year. All these were effects of increased popularity of the T20 format and its pressure on the players(9).

4. Conclusion: The objective of this research paper was to study the evolution of test cricket and the performance of the teams according to the latest ICC rankings. The aim was to determine how test cricket has changed in terms of runs scored, overseas performance, run rate etc. The study was conducted on secondary data collected through online websites. The introduction of T20 format since mid 2000s has contributed in number of ways namely, change in playing approach of the teams, viewership of the game, etc. A few analysis on the number of sixes indicated that the runs scored by sixes have raised for 6 out of 9 teams in both home and away. Test cricket is considered the game’s highest standard and there are several reasons behind it. It puts players through a battle for five days, starting from planning strategies to scoring runs to saving wickets and most importantly defeating the opponent physically and mentally.With the introduction to T20 format, there was significant change in the Test format of cricket. Test cricket has evolved in several ways, which include decisiveness, more runs by boundaries, stable run rate etc.

Ethical Clearance: Not applicable Source of Funding: Self-funded Conflict of Interest: There is no conflict of interest among the authors

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Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749

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Annals of Tropical Medicine & Public Health http://doi.org/10.36295/ASRO.2020.231749