Batting averages are plummeting, Tests are shortening and very few players seem able to occupy the crease for long stretches anymore.
It’s undeniable that the impact of T20 is damaging the way in which batters approach the Test format.
If you are a Bazball sycophant, you could claim that the lift in scoring tempo is “saving Test cricket” because they are more interested in entertaining the crowds than winning matches.
But if you are that easily fooled, then there’s no point trying to convince you otherwise.
The lift in runs per over across the board in Test cricket has undoubtedly been a positive addition to the traditional form of the game but it should not mean matches finish inside two or three days with increasing regularity.
There still has to be a place in Test cricket for batters who sell their wickets dearly, who are able to drop anchor when the going is tough to ride out the storm until batting conditions clear up.
Cricinfo recently did a deep-dive into the numbers which show that the collective Test batting average for matches in Australia over the past five years has been 26.75, down from 34.46 in the previous five summers.
It’s dropped from 42 in 2015-16 to a paltry 24.4 last summer, the lowest since the 1978-79 season when the Australian team was torn asunder by World Series Cricket with Bob Simpson coming out of a lengthy retirement in a bid to prevent the side being totally annihilated.
One reason put forward for the drop in runs is the introduction of the new Kookaburra ball during the last Ashes campaign which has an extra layer of lacquer so that it lasts longer, and an altered seam which keeps its prominence deeper into an innings.
The pitches are also being blamed – they have undoubtedly been greener in recent years.
Perth, Brisbane and Sydney have tossed up a few tricky batting wickets in recent seasons while the curators Melbourne and Adelaide seem to have mastered the dark art of preparing drop-in surfaces.
The Optus Stadium surface which resulted in a two-day Test last weekend was given a “very good” rating by the ICC, much to the chagrin of everyone in Indian cricket who cries double standards when bowler-friendly foreign wicket are not declared a piece of shit, like Usman Khawaja unwisely described the Perth pitch on Friday.
Usman Khawaja. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images for Cricket Australia)
It’s almost like he’s taunting the selectors to drop him, knowing that they are highly unlikely to do so because they prefer to be popular with the Test team’s established stars rather than to do their job and pick the best XI possible.
Day-night cricket has also been cited as a reason for batting not dominating like it once did.
Yes, the evening session can occasionally be tricky when the pink ball is swinging but its impact is overstated.
Like playing on an overcast day in England when swing is king, batting can be tricky but it’s not impossible.
For the modern Test batter it’s almost impossible not to be affected by the T20 revolution.
Ageing masters like Steve Smith, Joe Root, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli, as they fade into the twilight of their careers, spent their formative years playing against a red ball with the specific aim of getting into their nation’s Test team.
For the generation that has followed, the junior pathways are crammed with short-form cricket of the white-ball variety.
The players who make the representative squads are the ones with power on their side, particularly when it comes to batting.
Game-changing ability is trumping technique.
The Sam Konstas pyrotechnics display to kick off his Test career was not a coincidence.
And it’s hard to blame a young player for following that path – there are only 11 spots in the Test team and, especially in Australia, once you have cemented your position, it can be a decade or more before you have to give it up.
Sheffield Shield specialists are virtually anonymous who make a decent living.
T20 guns for hire rake in the dollars, by the million if they’re good enough to get scouted by the more lucrative foreign leagues, and are beamed into loungerooms across the country each summer.
England’s Bazballers have not so much been influenced by T20 power hitting, they’ve basically adopted it as their main method.
Batters are encouraged to go hard from the get-go and although it can look spectacular when Zak Crawley drills Pat Cummins to the cover boundary off the first ball of an Ashes campaign, it is not worth the risk when it also means he can be out for a duck in the opening over of each innings to start a series.
The Bazball approach is virtually an admission that the players are not able to survive at the crease for long stints so they might as well make hay while the sun shines.
It’s bizarro theory – the top order batting like tailenders who don’t trust their defensive prowess.
University of Western Australia Associate Professor Ronnie Das, who got a close-up look at Bazball (briefly) last week, has crunched the numbers to show that England’s run rate has increased by 50% from 3.24 prior to Brendon McCullum’s arrival in 2022 to 4.86 since he has been coach/cult leader.
Sam Konstas ramps on debut at Melbourne Cricket Ground. (Photo by Morgan Hancock – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
He added that their win rate has also gone through the roof, from 39.2% to 60.5% – a 54% relative improvement.
In the lead-up to this Ashes, the talk was that England had refined their approach with “Bazball with brains” tossed up by former captain Michael Vaughan to describe how they had reined in their reckless batting, which would give the Aussies a run for their money.
Even though they dominated the opening day in Perth, it was not due to their up-tempo batting – that was down to the inspired bowling of Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse and captain Ben Stokes.
They threw away their advantage of batting first on day one and their second-innings impetuosity meant they head to Brisbane next Thursday down 1-0 in the series.
Australia are toying with the idea of keeping Travis Head at opener after his sterling century blew England off the park last Saturday.
Brendon McCullum. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
In some quarters it is being seen as fighting fire with fire but it is worth noting that Head played attacking cricket without being careless as he built his innings.
Once he was set, he started moving around the crease and launching some audacious shots to and over the boundary which left Stokes and the rest of his bowlers in a state of panic.
Head is unorthodox and will never be accused of playing too many classical Test innings but he is the outlier in the Australian team – the rest of the batters put a high price on their wicket, even when they’re not in form.
It’s an approach which has helped Australia dominate the Test format for many years and it will likely ensure they retain the Ashes over a team that throws caution to the wind.
No one wants to see Test batting line-ups going back to the dark ages when the likes of Geoffrey Boycott, Bill Lawry and Mike Atherton put spectators to sleep but very few fans are happy when a modern batter smashes a boundary then follows it up with a ridiculous shot that leaves their team in the lurch.
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