How do players who grew up playing only fast T20 cricket become so good at tough Test cricket? This question has left former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar completely surprised.
Sanjay Manjrekar said that the way the current IPL generation is performing so well in Test cricket is a big mystery to him. To explain it, he gave a very interesting example. He said it is like asking a modern pop singer to suddenly sing a difficult classical raga.
Talking on a cricket show, Manjrekar shared his sense of surprise about how these young players have adjusted to red-ball cricket. He was especially amazed by their batting. He explained that for today’s pop singers, singing classical music would be very hard but these IPL players are doing that difficult transition in cricket. He wondered how the T20 generation is playing such good Test cricket, both in bowling and batting.
His comments have come at a time when India’s young team is playing a two-Test series against Sri Lanka. Most of these young players got selected because of their great performances in domestic cricket. But it is not easy for them to keep their place, as they have a very busy schedule and have to keep switching between all three formats of the game.
The former cricketer also talked about how difficult this switch is. He said it needs a lot of technical and mental changes. In T20 cricket, batters have to attack from the first ball but in Test cricket, they need a lot of patience, good judgement and concentration. He added that this difference is seen even more in batting because T20 batting and Test batting are completely different.
It is also true that India has not always been good at switching formats. In recent times, the team’s ability to play spin bowling has gone down and many people blame the flat pitches of the IPL for this.
But now the team is working hard to fix this problem. They are arranging more practice matches and giving themselves a lot more time before a Test series starts, so that players can properly adjust to the conditions.
He certainly made a good point, what do you say?
