Which aspects of test cricket have regressed in the current era?

[Molehill]

The thing about Australia is that it's such a sharp divide. Obviously prior to January 2007 it was ATG standard. Then after that it probably wasn't even Test standard for quite some time.

Harbhajan wouldn't make India's current side. Ashwin and Jadeja are a massive upgrade IMO

Valid point, much like Leach, carving out a half decent Test career due to lack of alternatives. Having said that, Harbhajan did spin India to victory in 2001 against a far better batting line up than Ashwin/Jadeja are currently facing.

Also agree about Australia, if only MacGill had been born 10 years later, he'd have had a great Test career post Warne.

 

[trundler]

MacGill wasn't better than Lyon.

 

[Molehill]

MacGill wasn't better than Lyon.

Average and strike rate would suggest he was. But even if not, he'd have filled that Warne to Lyon void.

 

[Spark]

Having said that, Harbhajan did spin India to victory in 2001 against a far better batting line up than Ashwin/Jadeja are currently facing.

The Harbhajan of the first part of his career - and hence of 2001 - would definitely make the current Indian side and would give Ashwin and Jadeja a run for their money for sure. Unfortunately he played a hell of a lot of games after that initial period and he was profoundly mediocre.

Like, after 2005, he was more likely than not to average over 40 in a given calendar year, and this is a period spanning over half his career.

 

[Line and Length]

If Test cricket has, as the topic suggests, regressed we need look no further than the increase in white ball cricket as a causative factor. Competitions such as the IPL have lured players to concentrate their skills on the shorter form of the great game.

 

[Raz0r6ack]

England probably has their strongest batting line up for at least 15 years, and maybe more than 50 years.

In fact no other test line up in history for any country has demonstrated that they are capable of what England's current batting line up has done.

England by 2011

Cook 5868 runs @ 49.72
Strauss 6340 runs @ 41.98
Trott 1965 runs @ 57.79
Pietersen 6361 runs @ 50.48
Bell 5027 runs @ 49.28
Collingwood 4259 runs @ 40.56
Prior 2549 runs @ 44.71

2 of England's current top 3 average under 32 after 33+ Tests played. Bairstow, Stokes average well under 40. Foakes isn't as good as Prior. Root would probably average high 50s if he was playing during that time. Brook might end up being a great player but time will tell.

 

[Coronis]

Fun stuff: current test players who were playing 15-20 years ago.

Anderson, Mushfiqur, Shakib, Broad, Southee

 

[subshakerz]

MacGill wasn't better than Lyon.

Hard to say since he didn't have as long a career.

 

[subshakerz]

The ability to bowl yorkers in test cricket seems much less common.

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

Conversion rates from 50 to 100 has gotten worse in the last 20 years , definitely...
Joe Root struggled with it for a long time , De Villiers struggled with it , We've got players like Bavuma who have 1 test hundred in the entire career, I think Dickwella of Sri Lanka is closing in on Warne's record of most test runs without a test hundred ..I don't know if stats will back this up but it feels like more and more of the current batsmen get complacent in the 50-99 mark than ever before .

 

[Howe_zat]

Bowlers are perfectly capable of bowling them. They do it less because modern batters aren't frightened of leg stump full tosses like they used to be.

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

The square cut has gone out of the game also , I used to love Robin Smith's square cut

 

[anil1405]

The Harbhajan of the first part of his career - and hence of 2001 - would definitely make the current Indian side and would give Ashwin and Jadeja a run for their money for sure. Unfortunately he played a hell of a lot of games after that initial period and he was profoundly mediocre.

Like, after 2005, he was more likely than not to average over 40 in a given calendar year, and this is a period spanning over half his career.

Pitching on off/middle and turning towards leg stump filth carried on for way tooo long.

 

[Pothas]

Boycott-Edrich
Vaughn-Trescothick
Strauss-Cook

Reckon that might actually be the most of anyone in that period. SA, WI and India have had 1 notable pair that I can think of in that period. 2 for Oz and none for Pak.

Suerly Australia have had more than that?

 

[Nintendo]

Swann debuted in 2008, Monty 2 years earlier, both far better than Leach. If we say 10-20 years then it's a no brainer.

I think we need at least 20 Tests to do a comparison, so cannot really use the likes of Rehan or Abrar. Kaneria did pick up 260 Test Wickets which is more than Yasir. A like for like those two.

I think you could argue England, Australia, Sri Lanka, NZ are clearly far weaker (although bit harsh on Lyon). SA a fair bit better, not so sure about Pakistan and WI. India also had Harbhajan with over 400 wickets, so again not a massive difference to Ashwin.

Harbhajan took his 400 wickets at 32, ashwin has taken his at 25. Even if you take DRS into account ashwin is a better bowler, no disrespect to harbahajan. It's kind of like comparing lyon to warne IMO. Jadeja is also arguably as good as ashwin, axar has started his career well, Kuldeep is a freak and would have played a ton more tests if he was from a different country and jayant yadav is there 5th choice. Not even talking about guys like sundar, saubhar kumar who has taken bag fulls for india A. All of these guys can also bat (not particularly relevant to spin discussion tbf). India's depth and frontline quality in this regard is insane.

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

Warm up games in build up to tests , also number of tests in a series has reduced which is kinda sad .
Careers change so much in a 5 test series

 

[Starfighter]

How far back does the 'current era' extend?

A few in my opinion:
- Ability to play any kind of movement (seam, swing, spin) has decreased thanks to hard-handed forward-trigger techniques that are good for T20.
- Also in line with said technique, the quality of back foot play has gone down (as with the aforementioned decline of the cut shot)
- Ability to construct an innings is decreasing (very noticeable in the current generation of Australian FC batsmen), again a T20 influence (through coaching at the junior level).
- Fast bowling variety with the old ball has gone down, even on dry pitches. It seems like if it's not reversing everyone just bowls ordinary seam up. If there pitch is turning, why not try some cutters?
- No-one bowls slower balls in tests now, which could be handy for breaking those tailend partnerships. Especially inexplicable considering almost every decent fast bowler can bowl two and employs them in T20s.

Bowlers are perfectly capable of bowling them. They do it less because modern batters aren't frightened of leg stump full tosses like they used to be.

And I disagree with this. You don't get good at anything by not practicing it. It seems like the attitude now is now to not bother if it's not reversing.

 

[Kenneth Viljoen]

Lack of India vs Pakstan test matches has helped shift the focus of youngsters to T20 cricket in Subcontinent.

 

[Spark]

- Fast bowling variety with the old ball has gone down, even on dry pitches. It seems like if it's not reversing everyone just bowls ordinary seam up. If there pitch is turning, why not try some cutters?
- No-one bowls slower balls in tests now, which could be handy for breaking those tailend partnerships. Especially inexplicable considering almost every decent fast bowler can bowl two and employs them in T20s.

These two are particularly strange because you think that, if anything, fast bowlers have more non-seam-up tools in their arsenal than ever with all the cutters, six types of slower ball etc that they've had to develop for white ball cricket. But we never see them in Tests.

 

[Nintendo]

Lol

I mean, is he wrong? I can't think of another batting lineup that actually played together that would have scored fast enough to turn that first test from pak from a draw into a win.