The need for attractive Test cricket

At a time when Test cricket's fortunes are at a low ebb, with the threat from the various Twenty20 tournaments around the world, it is necessary for the two most attractive sides (Australia and India) in the world to play out close finishes and exciting sessions to help traditional fans retain their faith as well as to attract a new set which cannot look beyond a 20-over match, writes Suresh Menon on ESPNStar.

The current series, unfortunately, has been too much about failing individuals and not enough about the big picture. You don't need great players to play great cricket; perhaps the rival captains should have a chat before the third Test and work out how they can make their sport more attractive, where victory and defeat are merely by-products of five days of intense, hard-fought but appealing cricket. Test cricket is on trial, and if it fails to excite the public even in India, the spiritual home of the game, then the trial can go only one way.