Wickets need to be the new runs
Why are many Tests these days getting boring, despite fast scoring-rates
Kanishkaa Balachandran
25-Feb-2013
Why are many Tests these days getting boring, despite fast scoring-rates? It's because runs are coming at the expense of wickets. You need runs in a Test but wickets are the actual currency. If wickets aren’t falling in a Test, you’re not getting any nearer a result, and the current India-Sri Lanka Test seems to be heading that way, writes Alex Bowden in the Wisden Cricketer.
My point is that an innings of 500 is not five times as exciting as one of 100. A target’s a target, so in reality they’re equally exciting. However, for the very same reason, a run is one fifth as exciting in the high scoring match because it’s only one fifth as important. In the highly unlikely event that Test cricket pitches were consistently made a little more challenging for batsmen, maybe people would be five times as interested in each day’s play.
Kanishkaa Balachandran is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo