Why India are failing the transition game in Test cricket
Excelling in the longer format requires a different approach and technique that can only be honed in first-class cricket
New Delhi: The Indian national team is big into blocking outside noise. Just as ‘process’ and ‘intent’ had once become the keywords for previous generations, ‘outside noise’ it is for this team. To them, it is, at the very least, a distraction and at the most, a destabilising factor induced by those who know very little about the dressing room. But sometimes, it makes sense to listen.
For years now, former cricketers and fans alike have been talking about the need to play more Ranji Trophy matches. It builds character, it hones technique and gives you space to tinker. But for years now, the cricketers and the Board for Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have resisted the call.
Now, as T20-bred cricketers come to the fore, that decision is coming back to haunt India. As coach Gautam Gambhir said after the Guwahati loss against South Africa, this side is “learning on the job”. But learning is precisely what Ranji Trophy, and not Test cricket, is built for.
Virat Kohli, for instance, played a Ranji game in 2025 after a hiatus of 12 years. He played 113 Tests between the two games for Delhi. But despite his average falling drastically in his last years as a Test cricketer (career avg: 46.85, last 5 years: 30.72), he never went back to the drawing board.
And when he did finally play Ranji Trophy, he found that he was falling in the same way here as he did in Test cricket. This isn’t to single Kohli out (many others are in the same boat) but rather to point out that playing first-class cricket still has benefits. That is the reason why yesteryear greats, from Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar; from Rahul Dravid to Cheteshwar Pujara, would turn out to play for their domestic team at every given opportunity.
Time is the enemy of all modern cricketers. Too many formats, too little time. If you came from an age before T20, you would spend days preparing for a tough tour. It could be a trip to an academy or asking for specific kinds of pitches or as Sourav Ganguly once did, take a personal tour to Australia where he worked with Greg Chappell. The only limit was your desire.
But now, shunting from one format to another; from one tour to another, maintaining fitness and form alone can feel like a triumph. But excelling in Test cricket requires players to embrace a different style. One can’t play on spicy or wearing pitches as one does in an ODI or a T20 game. It calls for a calm mind, technical ability and resolve — all things that the current generation has not yet been tested on enough.
Transition is always difficult, especially when it involves not just a change of players but of style. From the India teams that made the 2021 and 2023 WTC Final — Rohit Sharma, Pujara, Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav are all gone. Between them, they had a wealth of experience in red-ball cricket.
They may not have played too much Ranji cricket in the latter half of their careers but that is how they started out. And that is what players in the current generation need to do if they are serious about Test cricket. The BCCI’s scheduling hasn’t helped. Even important matches on the domestic calendar often have second-string teams (case in point being the 2025 Duleep Trophy final).
In the current India team, the players have played an average of 29 Tests and an average of 33 first-class matches. Australia, by comparison, have played 50 and 82 respectively. England have played 38 and 56. SA have played fewer average Tests at 22 but more FC games at 62.
The numbers in T20 cricket see India take the lead role despite them not playing in any international leagues. An average of 36 T20Is and 122 List A T20s. Australia are at 24 and 90 respectively, England at 18 and 93, SA at 25 and 119. NZ, who are approaching a transition of their own, are at 48 and 117.
If there is a reason why India seem so at home in T20Is, it is this. The players have truly figured out their game in that format. Test cricket, though, is still a bit of a mystery and there is no better place to solve it than in the middle.
Picking talents that do well in the Ranji Trophy should be a given for Test cricket. But instead, IPL performances usually seem to matter more. That can work for the odd genius but for everyone else, the hard yards matter.
The BCCI keeps talking about how domestic cricket matters but by letting top players skip the majority of the season, they aren’t setting the right example. It doesn’t help that the domestic season itself is broken into two halves to accommodate the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy ahead of the IPL auction.
The path back to the top in Test cricket is a clear one but one that demands time and effort in equal measure. There is no short cut here because training will always be different from actual game time. And that is something many in the team and the administration should ponder on as they lick their wounds after yet another crushing home series loss. After all it comes down to a simple question: how badly do you want it? Some sacrifices need to be made.
