by In olden times, Cricket was defined was by only the Test format where teams had to battle out for 5 days over two innings to decide the winner. Sometimes it even concluded in a draw. The final innings of the fifth day has seen several battle of the minds and only the ones who were mentally and physically strong and had the willpower to stay on, could save the test match.
One Day International came much later in the 1975’s when the World Cup started. The 50 year format was completely different to the way a test match was played. A 50 over game had its own strategy, a game plan and a bowling/batting strategy to put up a formidable total on the board. This also required extensive planning on the batting lineup, who should be promoted up the order in case of a batting collapse and so forth. The same was with the bowling attack where captains had to decide which bowler bowled better in the opening overs, the slog overs and the death overs. A mix of spin and pace bowling made the batsmen difficult to adjust to the pace.
However over the last 5 years ,we have seen a completely new format called Twenty 20 (T20) emerge in cricket whose main aim is to impact the game’s reputation and basically spoil all the good name cricket has earned over the decades. This 20 over format solely relies on whose side has more power hitters as they smack every delivery for a four/six in a shortened boundary. You had to hit the ball as hard as you can whether it was the first over or the final 20th over
There is no definitive strategy or a game plan. It was mostly win toss, bat first, put a 180+ total on board and try to defend it. Bowlers had no choice in this format but to be hit for a boundary every alternate ball. Their economy rates average around 8-10 if not more and even a 5-6 run over was considered to be a good one for the bowling side
The impact of T20 especially IPL had a negative impact on the other versions of the game. The IPL version was more profitable, brought in more crowds and gave insane salaries to cricketers. However almost all the players especially in the Indian squad struggled to adapt themselves to the 50 over format or even the test format. They began their useless approach of hitting every delivery ,got out quickly and the whole team collapsed for around 200 or less
The recent loss of India against Australia by 1-4 in the ODI series but a 3-0 victory in ODI was a clear reflection of how the players were mainly tuned to the T20 version and not capable of winning IDI matches
