WISDEN’S TEST APPEAL
THE Wisden Book of Test Cricket 2014-2019, which Steven Lynch has edited, is probably the perfect companion to Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2020 where he is deputy to the editor, Lawrence Booth. Lynch explains the history of The Wisden Book of Test Cricket: “Bill Frindall, the old radio statistician, did the first one in about 1978. And when Frindall sadly died, they asked me to take it on. So, I’ve done the lot since 2000. This is actually the third one I’ve done.” Each Test match features Wisden’s own scorecard, a detailed match report, details of debutants, close-ofplay scores, umpires and referees, and Man of the Match winners. “There is a charm about it,” muses Lynch. “You sort of show your age because if someone talks about the highest Test score, I immediately think of (Garfield) Sobers. Then you remember that it’s (Brian) Lara.” In 1994, Lara eclipsed Sobers, another West Indian legend, and then overtook Pakistan’s Hanif Mohammad in first-class cricket. “[A score of] 365 (by Sobers) jumps out at me, and then I have to amend it in my head. Lara (by scoring 375) broke Sobers and Hanif Mohammad (who had hit 499) about six weeks apart. (Lara’s) 400 not out (scored in 2004) is the highest in Tests and 501 not out the highest in first class.” Like many cricket lovers, Lynch enjoys lingering over the statistics. “I find it fun just to look at them – you see things you did not notice before every time you look at a score. Oh, he got a pair in that match!” He mentions the Australian Steve
Smith, regarded today as one of the world’s greatest batsmen. “Steve Smith made his Test debut at Lord’s against Pakistan in 2010 as a leg spinner. I think he batted seven or eight. Is that really him? What’s he doing batting there and why is he bowling? And hopefully you get a bit diverted and forget what you were looking up in the first place.”
Asked about the evolution of Test cricket over the three editions he has edited, Lynch responds: “I suppose the biggest difference is on the cover, which incidentally is my favourite of all the various volumes of this book.
“It shows the first day/night Test, which was at Adelaide in 2015. You can see the floodlights in front of a beautiful late-night sky, with the match going on basically in the dark. I don’t think floodlit cricket is going to be suitable everywhere –the long hours of daylight in England make it a bit of a problem – but in Australia it seems to work well, and probably it will get going in India, too.”
He goes on: “The other thing I enjoyed about this book was introducing the new Test nations – Ireland and Afghanistan, who played their first Test matches in 2018. When I was growing up, Irish cricket was not really taken seriously. So it’s great to have watched their rise.
“And then Afghanistan – that’s just an amazing story. It would obviously help if they could play home matches, in Kabul or wherever, but I suppose realistically that’s a long way off. They do seem to have a bigger player base than Ireland, though.”
According to Lynch, “this particular book on the last five years of Test cricket covers a really good era for Indian cricket. They were almost unbeatable at home, often winning by streets.
“India did not have a ferocious ace attack before,” he gives as a reason. “Their spinners are usually the strength of Indian bowling but sometimes they don’t even get into the team now.”
He talks of a Test in which “of the 20 wickets, none went to a spinner, which hadn’t happened before. They have had lots of great batsmen – [Sunil] Gavaskar and [Sachin] Tendulkar and [Rahul] Dravid – and the current lot are equally good.”
He recalls the India-England series in 2016-2017. “England scored 400 in a couple of games (in Mumbai and Chennai) and still lost by an innings – I think that has happened to England only once before.”
Of the series India lost 3-1 in England in 2018, his view is “India were pretty unlucky. The score line is flattering to England. It could have been a drawn series or even 3-2 to India with a bit of luck or doing DRS at the right time.
“I suppose India’s challenge, in time for the next edition, will be to win consistently away from home. They won the last series in Australia.
They have to do it more than once They have just lost in New Zealand – in a series that’s not in this book – which I guess is a reminder of that.
“But it’s got to be good for cricket if India has a healthy cricket scene. I hope they will continue to treat Test cricket as just as important as the other formats, and I think they will while [Virat] Kohli is in charge.
“Kohli is super to watch. It’s a toss-up between him and Smith as to who is the world’s best batsman at the moment. Smith is interesting to watch, as he’s so unorthodox, but Kohli is more textbook. And I like the way he always looks astonished when he somehow gets out.
“Rohit Sharma was phenomenal during last year’s World Cup, then transferred that form to Tests. And Cheteshwar Pujara is like a proper old-fashioned Test batsman. Then the bowling – India have never had the best pace attack in the world before, but now it’s another toss-up between them and Australia.
“Jasprit Bumrah is great for cricket because lots of people will be trying to copy that action. And the spinners, [Ravichandran] Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja – it’s strange to think that they sometimes don’t even get a game despite having superb stats. I do wonder whether India missed a trick in last year’s World Cup by leaving Jadeja out so often.
“India’s youth teams are very strong, too – so I think you will see a situation in India like you had in Australia not long ago, when great players like Stuart Law and Darren Lehmann hardly got a look-in in Tests. The strength in depth must be the envy of all the other countries – even Australia don’t have that sort of bench strength just now.” n The Wisden Book of Test Cricket 2014-2019, edited by Steven Lynch. Bloomsbury £40.