Five-day Test cricket should not be altered, admits Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli was adamant and vehement in opposing the floating idea of having a ‘four-day’ Test cricket replacing the traditional five-day game. The concept came into the fore in December 2017 when South Africa played Zimbabwe with multiple cricketing boards having a chat about changing the format to accommodate more Test matches in a calendar year. 

After the concept was relaunched on the table by Cricket Australia late last year, the ICC wanted to take it up further in the 2023-31 FTP cycle to accommodate more games between sides. While Joe Root had thrown his support behind the idea, Australia’s Nathan Lyon had expressed his disliking to the changing format and now Kohli joins the bandwagon. 

“According to me, it should not be altered. As I said, the day-night is another step towards commercialising Test cricket and you know, creating excitement around it, but it can’t be tinkered with too much. I don’t believe so,” said Kohli, reported The Hindu. 

The Indian captain further feels that if the ICC implement the four-day Test now, they would be tempted to bring in a three-day game to get quicker results, which would just take the beauty of Test cricket away from it. 

“Then you are purely only talking about getting numbers, entertainment and you know. I think the intent will not be right then because then you will speak of three-day Tests. I mean where do you end? Then you will speak of Test cricket disappearing,” Kohli added. 

“So I don’t endorse that at all. I don’t think that is fair to the purest format of the game. How cricket started initially, and you know five-day Tests was the highest of Tests you can have at the International level.”