Test cricket is changing due to white ball game, the art of defending is decreasing: Gambhir

Mumbai, (IANS): The advent of T20 cricket has disrupted the longer format of cricket and modern Test players have forgotten the art of defending doggedly and crushing the bowling. The approach now is to attack the bowling, especially with England using their baseball strategy and India following it under new head coach Gautam Gambhir.

Gambhir, however, dismissed suggestions that his batsmen have lost the skill of playing spin on turning tracks, as he did against Mitchell Santner in the second Test of the three-match series at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune last week. But the 43-year-old player-turned-coach said the art of playing Test cricket has changed because of the T20 format and the World Test Championship, which the International Cricket Council launched a few years ago.

“To become a successful Test cricketer, you look at people like Virat (Kohli). You look at all the great players who have done really well in Test cricket for a long time, their defense has always been good. The foundation of your batting in Test cricket should be defense and then you start moving forward from there.

Perhaps this has a lot to do with playing on flat wickets in T20 cricket. But again, I think we should keep working on our defence, we should keep working on our game, we should keep tightening our game because Test cricket is Test cricket. You will see in the future that we will have the same problems with many other teams because the more T20 cricket is played, the more people will start defending less.

Gambhir said teams will have to adopt this approach in Test cricket and this could lead to different teams for each format, with the Test squad having players who can bat for 2-3 sessions, defend for hours at a stretch. Can do.

“Look, it is difficult to answer this question at this time. But going forward, obviously, we have to identify players who are solid red-ball cricketers because ultimately, to get results, you have to work hard for three or four days honestly. So sometimes, as I just mentioned, batting in sessions is also important. And if you can bat in the sessions, we know we have the bowling attack to take 20 wickets.

“At this point, it is difficult to answer because it is a hypothetical question,” he said. But yes, it is very important to identify the right red-ball batsmen.”

Gambhir said his team's struggles against spin in Pune were not surprising, but he said his players knew they had to keep improving and play better defensively.

“Look, I'm not surprised. Surprise is not the right word. I think it's just that, as I said, Mitchell Santner bowled really well in Pune. But we also have to keep getting better. We have to keep defending better. I think this is important, especially on turning tracks. Because if you have confidence in your defense, many things can be solved. It's something we have to keep getting better at and keep working on. Because, again, I will come back to the same answer which is very much related to limited overs cricket and T20 cricket as well. Sometimes you get used to driving the ball with so much power that you forget about soft hands and things like that. “This used to happen maybe 8 or 10 years ago.”