Compared to the last time the squad played in white, Test cricket fans, particularly those in India, felt that this series was a significant letdown. An exciting five-match Test series in England, which included hard-fought draws in Manchester and thrilling finishes at Lord’s and The Oval, appropriately ended in a draw. Even the series’ lone one-sided match, a 336-run loss for the hosts at Edgbaston, featured an exciting counterattack by Harry Brook and Jamie Smith. That came after England hammered 371 in the series opener at Headingly.
To begin with, Ahmedabad’s empty stands ought to respond. However, it was predicted because the West Indies has struggled for a long time and hasn’t been able to compete with India for the past 20 years. With five of these six matches ending in three days, they have now lost all six of their away Test matches against India since 2013—four by an innings and one by ten wickets. India’s power in Delhi was too great for the West Indies, despite a generous first innings declaration and a poor choice to enforce the follow-on.
But these games have mostly only included a few teams, and the games played elsewhere have been mainly one-sided.
With the growth of T20 leagues over the past ten years, Test cricket has lost global appeal. The World Test Championship was designed to give the game more importance. Tests are now more focused on results than ever since the WTC was founded, and the first three editions have produced three different winners.
The strategy did, in fact, reduce the gap between the home and visiting teams as clubs advanced to try to secure the greatest amount of home advantage, though not as dramatically as in 2024. The concept of a two-tier system, with two divisions of six teams each and a promotion or relegation for one or two of them after every cycle, has been floated because all of that hasn’t been sufficient.
What gives rise to the concept of a two-tier system?
India, Australia, and England have undoubtedly been the main drivers of Test cricket, with any series involving two of them drawing the most attention.
Three hundred and sixty-nine people attended the 2024 Boxing Day Test between India and Australia, which was held in Melbourne. Although it’s a fairly unfair comparison, Ahmedabad saw a very low turnout earlier this month. Across digital media, the England vs. India Test series earlier this year was the highest watched. Tickets for the second Test match in Birmingham were sold out well in advance, indicating that the matches were also highly attended.
In an interview with Michael Atherton, Ravi Shastri, and Dinesh Karthik on Sky Sports, Nasser Hussain stated, “We’re very lucky in England, and we musn’t take it for granted, that every Test match here is nearly sold out.” He also added that Test cricket in the nation doesn’t necessarily require a WTC context to increase its appeal.
In addition, since the WTC’s debut in 2019, there has been a noticeable separation between the top teams and the others. According to the current ICC Test Rankings, Australia, South Africa, England, India, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka would be at the top of the two-tier system. The cumulative record of these teams against the other six has been incredibly lopsided.
*Includes 11 tests that were not WTC-status.
The top six countries are Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, England, South Africa, and Australia.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ireland, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and the West Indies make up the bottom six.
Eight of the lower-tier teams’ 13 victories have come against Pakistan, where they have a strong record in the past, or at home, sometimes on specially constructed fields like they did against England the previous season. The top six teams won 20 of their 68 games by an innings margin (29.41%). Thirty of the 32 games had a margin of victory of 70 or more, while 15 had a margin of more than 200.
Of the 17 successful run-chases, 13 were finished with more than seven wickets to spare, including seven 10-wicket victories. The top-tier teams’ bowling average in these 97 head-to-head Test matches is 25.44, while the bottom six’s is 41.03. 119 as opposed to 68 is the number of individual hundreds.
The decline of the West Indies and Pakistan
Pakistan finished fifth in the first WTC cycle, while the other two were once again in the bottom. In the previous two WTC cycles, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the West Indies were the bottom three.
From January 2011 to June 2019, the win-loss ratio is almost halved at 2.67 (80 wins, 29 losses, and 29 draws) if the same six-team grouping (see the preceding section) is used and pinned against one another. Although Ireland and Afghanistan only gained Test status in 2017, and five of the bottom six sides haven’t really been able to compete with the top ones, Pakistan has suffered greatly since they briefly had the No. 1 ranking during the 2-2 draw series in England in 2016.
They have since won 23, lost 35, and drawn eight Test matches. Not to mention the 0–2 loss to Bangladesh at home last year, they have won seven, lost 26, and drawn four against SENA teams. Pakistan has lost 10 of the twelve Test matches against SENA nations since the start of the WTC in 2019.
For the West Indies, it has been difficult in all formats. They just qualified for the 2023 ODI World Cup in 2019 after placing second in the qualifications the previous year. Their three most recent T20 World Cup campaigns have been everything than stellar (they were not selected for the 2022 Super 12s in Australia). The India series was only a continuation of a pretty dreary run in Test cricket.
After losing 11 of their 14 Test matches, it now appears that Shamar Joseph’s victory at the Gabba last year was a strange flash in the pan. The two victories came against Pakistan and Bangladesh, and the tie against South Africa was impacted by the weather. The first time they were beaten at home in a three-match or longer series, they suffered a 0–3 loss to Australia, which was their lowest point. Coming into the Delhi Test with a maximum total of 253, they had only advanced past the first new ball twice in their last 15 innings, including the run that saw them reach the all-time second-lowest all-out total of 27 against Australia.
To what extent is the concept feasible?
“As England, we wouldn’t want to drop to Division Two and miss out on games against Australia or India if we had a slump. That just wasn’t possible. “Common sense must win out,” ECB chair Richard Thomson recently stated. It’s true that these three sides have produced three of the greatest series in recent memory: India’s 2023 Ashes series draw, their 2020–21 comeback victory over Australia, and their most recent tour of England.
The lopsided distribution of the tests
Also, since the 2018 English summer began, there have been 13 bilateral Test series with four or more Tests; the only one with a team other than the Big Three is England in South Africa in 2019–20. While New Zealand, the original WTC winners, has only played three Test matches in four of their 22 series since August 2019, South Africa, the current WTC champions, last played a three-match bilateral series in 2022–2023. Actually, the last time a series with three or more Test matches without any of the Big Three was played was during Pakistan’s 2018–19 tour of South Africa.
The other sides, who have mostly participated in two-Test (occasionally three-Test) series, are far less frequent Test players than India, Australia, and England.
India
