Reflections on Indian Men’s Test Cricket Team

This is an article that I have been planning to write for some time but could not get the requisite time and mental space to put my thoughts to paper. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) concluded in the first week of January 2025 with a 3-1 score line in favour of Australia. This was the first time after 2014-15 in ten years that Australia won the BGT trophy and capped a series of 4 losses for Australia in BGT – including two on their home soil. The losses in BGT, compounded by the 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand in India –a first in Indian cricket history, led to India’s exclusion from the finals of the World Test Series for the first time in its three editions. And the trilogy of events –India’s loss to New Zealand, India’s loss to Australia and exclusion of India from WTC final – provided a fitting end to India’s dominant test run in the last 10 years.

It is a sign of the myopic nature of cricket commentators and analysts that they have failed to recognize that India was the dominant Test team in the world for the last decade. That domination was neither fleeting nor adequately challenged, except by Australia in some phases, before it ended ingloriously with two series defeats. In this respect, India had a legitimate claim to be compared with the West Indian team of the 1980s and the Australian team of the 2000s. The fact that this domination in Test cricket happened in the backdrop of a cricketing environment dominated by white-ball cricket, especially T20, makes it more poignant.

Although the juxtaposition of on-field dominance of the Test team with the commercial preponderance of T20 cricket seems paradoxical at first sight, insightful analysis reveals their intimate connection. Success in any endeavour requires a combination of aptitude, attitude, and altitude. Aptitude refers to skills and talents; attitude refers to interest and passion and altitude refers to the quality of facilities provided. The ongoing commercial success of cricket in India, which started in the 1980s and picked up steam in the 1990s, convinced a large number of youths to consider cricket as a profession. The domestic system with its large number of teams, in absolute terms, facilitated it. As the base was large, the possibility of finding astounding talent was more.

The youngsters who flocked to play cricket in the early 2000s and formed the mainstay of the cricket team in the 2015-25 period put Test cricket on a high pedestal because of their experiences and conditioning. Thus, it was no surprise that they put their considerable talents to its service. The Indian cricket board (BCCI) was flush with funds and invested a part of it, low as a proportion but large in absolute terms, to improve the sports facilities. The salaries of players and the avenues of employment also increased with the increase in cricket economy. All this created a virtuous cycle enabling the growth of Test cricket. In retrospect, the astounding thing was not the dominance of Indians in Test but the lack of comparative dominance of the Indian cricket team in ODIs and T20s despite India contributing more than 70 percent to the total cricket economy.

If all the underlying factors were left untouched, India’s current losses could have been considered a blip. However, I am not so sanguine about the same. The youngsters of the last decade probably do not prioritize test cricket above T20. The Indian selectors seem to be blinded by the dazzle of IPL performances leading to consistent overlooking of solid performances in the Ranji trophy. For the Australian tour, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy seem to have been picked up on the basis of IPL performances and consistent Ranji performers like Sarfaraz Khan and Abhimanyu Easwaran were overlooked in actual team selection even when they were part of the squad. The over-the-top adulation of Nitish Reddy after his century in Melbourne was an indication of the perils of commercialization as it indicated how the need for heroes to market could simultaneously defocus the minds of youngsters and make objective analysis of their performance by selectors difficult. In conclusion, the fundamental thinking of the Indian cricket establishment in the Test arena, is neither as clear nor as coherent as the Australians. Hence, I won’t be surprised if Australia becomes the dominant test team for the next decade despite the much larger size of the Indian cricket economy.

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