Joe Root turns the back ramp to his undefeated 118 on the first day of the Ashes Series in Edgbaston. Getty Images
Can England's approach work in India? Ben Stokes rolled his eyes at the inevitable question after the Oval Test because he had heard it all before.
“When we beat New Zealand 3-0, they said we couldn't do it. against South Africa, Pakistan or Australia. So who knows if we can do it against India,” he replied.
England lost 8-1 in the last two tours of India combined, so sticking to the old method still won't work. The victory of England in this way is the best method of persuasion, because everyone is interested in the result; Test cricket needs a shot in the hand.
There are already signs that one or two teams are trying to emulate England's methods. Pakistan recently increased their scoring against Sri Lanka by spending time in pre-series training camp working on more aggressive batting. India were more expansive in the series against the West Indies in June, debuting the flamboyant Ishan Keeshan, who hit at odds of 85 baseball strikes.
The West Indies have only beaten Zimbabwe and Bangladesh after winning a deadly boring series against England, the last in the pre-Stokes era. Their captain, Craig Brathwaite, is a shell, not a baseball player, and the team plays in his style. Nicholas Puran, one of the world's most wanted T20 players, has never played Test cricket. Shimron Hetmayer, another West Indies T20 draw, came away from Test cricket with a modest record. Could he have been persuaded to return with a different approach?
Shimron Hetmeier is only 26 years old but has not played Test cricket since 2019, keeping his gunpowder dry for the West Indies franchise and white ball games. Australia in winter. They have nothing to lose if they give a chance to a batsman like Tristan Stubbs, the star of the Mumbai Indians, and discover the talent of a white ball player to be nurtured in the new South African T20 league.
For Test cricket to survive and bring back the crowd, coaches must promote a style that produces a watchable product. Teams are playing at full strength and it would be foolish to use a style that doesn't match their talents, and Stokes didn't want to preach about it, but this is a generation of players born in the Twenty20 era. Batting the ball aggressively is a natural response if the team's system allows for the possibility of a hit.
It's easier to take a breather when you're already financially secure for life and widely respected for your cricket achievements, like Stokes and McCallum, two people whose legacy and financial future of their families will not depend on how they work in their current position. roles.
But where McCallum was farsighted was in seeing the foolishness of trying to change the natural instincts of young players. Why not use their shooting potential and bend Test cricket to your will, rather than changing the way players play to suit Test cricket? This seems obvious.
Test cricket is in decline for many reasons, mostly financial, but there are also many dull matches played on dead grounds when teams play in a style that has hardly changed in recent years.
Outside of the Big Three, England, India and Australia, white ball cricket dominates because it makes money and cricket lacks the fair funding model that the ECB has signed up for. South Africa, Sri Lanka and the West Indies have been reduced to mostly two-leg test series for the next future tours. Boards can't afford to run money-losing tests that no longer generate a decent income from broadcast rights unless India is playing (and even tours to India have dropped in price because broadcasters are gobbling up franchise league rights instead).
Meanwhile, England, Australia and India set up a series of five Tests against each other home and away in the next cycle, keeping the money spinning in a very tight circle. England will not be touring either Sri Lanka or the West Indies in the current test schedule, which runs until 2027.
The yeast army pictured in Sri Lanka in 2012 won't be returning to the island anytime soon. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Most boards now rely on money from the annual global event to survive because they don't have a massive home market for Big Three rights. Money has also fallen on test cricket rights, it is the Twenty20 leagues that bring in the money and the crowds.
They also produce talent, players who could flourish in Test cricket if given the chance and the right environment. McCallum has turned the English team into a fun place, players don't want to be left out.
When Stokes was asked about the future of Test cricket ahead of the Oval Test, he struggled to come up with an answer. Apart from his current opinion that if the white-ball players are allowed to run freely, then the red-ball game will become more interesting to watch. “Test cricket just has to stay,” he said. “I think there is a world where T20 and test cricket can live side by side. In 10-15 years time, if test cricket still exists, white ball cricket players will be even more interesting from the point of view of the whole world, and not just us.”
That's the point. Crowds moving away from bombastic Test cricket is a problem, but when players don't want to play the format anymore, it's in real trouble. Making it fun to watch and in turn fun to play seems like the obvious answer that has stared the game in the eye for years.
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