CHENNAI : "When you don't play Tests, the needed technique disappears," Shantha Rangaswamy told this daily on the eve of India's Test match on home soil after 14 years.
"They tend to play only bottom-hand shots across the line and things like that. I think BCCI should introduce multi-day cricket then the standards will go up because they will learn to play the right way that comes when you play multi-day matches," she added.
India's success in the two home Tests in December 2023 paved the way and now starting from March 28 in Pune, the senior inter-zonal multi-day trophy is back after the hiatus of four years. The former Hyderabad and India A cricketer Ananya Upendran, who represented South Zone in 2017-18 remembers the red ball fixtures fondly that first became part of the domestic season in 2015. "My memories (of the series) are of having fun," she told this daily.
"Finally after four seasons, it was about understanding the nuances of multi-day cricket and learning how you can manufacture wins in different situations. And it's not just about the art of scoring runs in different conditions but also about taking wickets and setting up the batter and having conversations around patience and the game plan. My overwhelming memory from that is of understanding what it means to play multi-day cricket," she added.
Upendran believes the national side's success against England and Australia in the longest format did play a role in the revision, but one should also give credit to the skill superiority of the Indian players across the formats and this is another way to help them improve with their match awareness.
"I do not doubt that the fact that India won two Tests in a week helped. It also underlines that when it comes to pure skills Indian cricketers are probably at par, if not ahead of their counterparts from Australia, England, and every other country. There is just a lack of game awareness, match temperament, and general fitness levels. And that's why in white ball cricket sometimes we get shown up, but in multi-day cricket, because there's so much more time and we're more skilled in some ways, we're able to do better."
And the players would like to earn that experience over the next few days in Pune. As Rangaswamy suggested, the players can hone their skills required in any format, through the multi-day game, Upendran, a pacer herself, knows the importance of playing the red ball game, where taking wickets affects the result more than anything.
"One of the big things about women's cricket, especially with the bowlers is that your currency is dot balls in white ball and not necessarily taking wickets. The art of taking wickets is often missing because white ball cricket is always about who scores more runs. So as a bowler, you're always trying to defend down rather than actually play cricket. Whereas in multi-day cricket, dot balls don't mean as much. And while, of course, it helps build pressure and set someone up. I don't think, until you play the game you understand how much more skill and mental awareness one needs. It's important more from a building temperament point of view, but also from making young players understand how to get wickets. It also helps develop your skills because you're doing it over a long period and you have to survive so many different types of conditions as both the batter and a bowler."
What makes this edition of the multi-day trophy more interesting is the number of Indian international players who have opted to play in the competition. National side's captain Harmanpreet Kaur, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana, and opener Shafali Verma have all been added to their respective zonal sides. On one level it shows how enthusiastic players are for the competition and secondly, how vital this opportunity is for the young and upcoming players to learn from some of the best in the country.
"I think, anyone who plays domestic cricket with international players raises the level by just being there. It also provides an understanding of what the Indian team is doing because all the players from the national side are essentially in leadership positions within their state teams, which means they're driving those teams forward in terms of culture, values and style of play. It also then helps people who are competing for the spots understand what they need to do to get to that level or how far behind or how on par they are or whatever the skills they need to develop," signed off Upendran.