Opinion Loving Tests,liking Twenty20 aren’t mutually exclusive: Harsha Bhogle

Prejudiced eyes

I fear we look at Test cricket and T20 through similarly prejudiced eyes. We grade them,we create our own class system because that is what we were conditioned to do. But over two days,in Chennai and Bengaluru,I saw performances that made me sit up and question this rigid adherence to a hierarchy of skills.

In devilish humidity in Chennai and on a sluggish track,albeit freshened a bit by dew,David Warner put up an extraordinary display of power hitting. He made 135 not out off 69 balls against an attack that had three bowlers who had made their country’s World Cup team and one who would have had he not been injured. He didn’t resemble a blacksmith at any point,got runs when others struggled to get them,and when tired hit a ball onto the roof of the stadium and beyond. If batting in twenty overs cricket was so easy,there would be many more innings like those; if making a 20 sec commercial was so simple,there would be many great ad film makers.

Warner played cricket shots,he timed the ball beautifully,worked on a different definition of risk maybe but he did all that with a level of skill that was breathtaking to watch. How many contemporary cricketers can consistently deposit good balls over the boundary rope? If leaving a ball is a sign of good judgement,and it often truly is,hitting a good ball over long on should be too.

And then,a day later,I was at one of the great matches I have seen. On an excellent batting surface,a group of tough Aussies who played hard and loved a scrap,scored 214 for 2. They didn’t smash every ball out of the park. In fact Daniel Harris hit 12 fours before his first six and almost all of them were in a lovely arc from extra cover to mid-wicket. Then,two outstanding talents,Callum Ferguson and Virat Kohli,timed the ball as well as anyone can,ran hard between wickets but deposited balls over the boundary with great nonchalance. They weren’t hitting the ball 62 metres,it was more like 80. And when 214 looked like it would be overhauled (a feat as unthinkable as South Africa chasing 434),Shaun Tait bowled fast and straight and knocked batsmen over. None of it was easy. And to add to the drama,a six was hit off the last ball to win the game.

I can hear people saying: but they didn’t have to face any chin music or wait till the ball starts seaming on a green top. Batting in those conditions requires great skill but you don’t have to be good at everything,there isn’t a hierarchy that goes down from sublime to respectable to crass. You don’t have to know the precise calculations behind the working of a Large Hadron Collider but you can teach physics to 17-year-olds well enough. You don’t have to understand dark matter or play Tchaikovsky at 10 to be respectable. Twenty overs cricket requires a slightly different skill and not everyone can be good at it either.

I enjoyed the World Cup,loved seeing the intensity with which England played test cricket and for many reasons enjoyed watching the Champions League T20. Unlike in a good marriage,you don’t have to love only one.