Test cricket how does it work

When a test match team has a lot of fielders in catching positions, this makes it harder for batsmen as they know that any false shots that they play are likely to be caught by a strategically placed fielder. For example, if Rohit Sharma is opening the innings in a test match in England, he knows that if he edges the ball in the direction of second slip at any point, there is a high chance he will be caught and dismissed.

There is always a high chance that a fielder will be positioned there! However, if he was opening the innings in a T20 match in England and edged a ball towards second slip, it is much less likely that this mistake would be punished.

Beyond the first couple of overs there would definitely not be a fielder in that position, and as a result the edge may end up going for a boundary! To summarise this section, the attacking field placings that are regularly seen in test matches give the batsmen much less room for error and mean that any mistakes they make are more likely to lead to a dismissal. One of the most challenging aspects of test cricket is the amount of different conditions it forces both batsmen and bowlers to try to perform in.

Batting in England is a very different challenge to batting in Sri Lanka because in England the ball swings and seams much more for the fast bowlers. This is why lots of batsmen who have grown up in the sub-continent struggle in English conditions!

Additionally, bowling in India often requires very different skills than bowling in a country like New Zealand. Indian pitches are much more suited to spin, and as a result in those parts of the world you may see 2 or 3 spinners in a line up. Only the most elite cricketers will be able to excel in all conditions across the globe!

First, batting! David Warner is a top class opening batsman who has scored runs for Australia at the top of the innings for years. He is especially effective in Australia because those are the conditions that he grew up batting in. At the time of writing, Warner has played 45 tests in Australia. He averages 63 in those tests — which is an incredibly impressive number, and he averages above 40 against each opposing team he has faced in Australia.

On foreign soil his batting average is 33 — which is almost half of his average at home! At the time of writing Root averages 52 at home in England — which is impressive considering the tough batting conditions regularly experienced there! But we can probably rule this one out as he only played 1 test against them in This shows that he is a much more consistent batsman than David Warner is when playing test matches in a variety of different conditions!

In home tests, on average Jimmy concedes 24 runs for each wicket that he takes. He also has a strike rate of 1 wicket every 51 balls. In test matches that occurred away from home, on average Jimmy concedes 31 runs for each wicket that he takes.

He also has a strike rate of 1 wicket every 66 balls. Only 8 of his 31 five wicket hauls have occurred in tests that took place abroad! At home, Steyn conceded an average of 21 runs per wicket he took, and he had a strike rate of 1 wicket every 40 balls.

This is an excellent record! When playing away from home, Steyn conceded an average of 24 runs per wicket he took, and took a wicket every 43 balls that he bowled.

Again, this is a remarkable record, and the small difference between his home performances and his away performances suggest that Dale Steyn was a bowler that was much better suited to all conditions than Jimmy Anderson was. Most people have felt homesick at some point in their lives. Homesickness is often a problem for test cricketers and cricketers in general because the heavy international schedules often force them to be away from their home country and from their families for long periods of time.

I remember a couple of years ago in , Australia came over to England to play in the World Cup. They arrived in May, because the world cup was scheduled to begin on the 30 th of May. The Ashes was scheduled to finish on September 19 th! So, Australian cricketers who had played in the world cup and then in the Ashes had been in England living in hotels for 4 months during In test cricket, each team bats twice. If team X bats first and team Y bats second, the same order will be followed in the next innings also, except in case of a follow-on.

If team Y scores more than team X in first innings, Y is said to be in lead with the excess else they are said to be trailing by a deficit. If team X puts up a score and team Y is all out with still a deficit of more than runs remaining to chase then the captain of team X may enforce a follow-on in which team Y bats again with the aim to reduce the deficit and gain a lead over X.

The decision to enforce a follow-on is of team X's captain. If a team feels they have batted enough to be in control of the match and the opponent will be unable to bowl them out, they may choose to declare the innings and ask the other team to bat. If team X has batted twice and still did not cross the first innings total of team Y, they lose the match by an innings and if all the four innings of the match are not completed in the five days, the match ends in a draw.

In Test matches, a minimum of 90 overs have to be bowled in a day or a minimum of 15 overs per hour except on the last day. A minimum of 75 overs on the last day for the playing time have to be bowled. The scheduled overs may be reduced or increased in case the match is affected by rain or any other disturbance s. If there is a change of innings in case a team is bowled out or a team declares their innings in the day's play, 2 overs will be deducted from the minimum overs to be bowled in the day.

The new ball is available after every 80 overs have been bowled in the match. The ball can be replaced by a ball of similar usage condition if it changes shape and fails the loop test. The aim of the DRS was to review the decision by on-field umpires. Initially, teams were provided with a maximum of two reviews in an innings and later a top up of reviews after 80 overs was proposed.

Now, there is no top-up of reviews and teams have 2 reviews per inning with no review lost in case of umpire's call in an LBW decision. Test cricket had always been played under natural light conditions and the lights are only used to enable a full day's play to be completed. That's why we've put together an ever-e The very concept of a game that can take up to five days to complete, without there being a certain winner at the end of it all is incomprehensible to many millions.

Yet it still entrances millions across the world with its history and intense rivalries. The bi-annual contest between England and Australia that represents one of the most intense rivalries in world sport. As with all forms of the game, each side plays with 11 players, each of whom tends to specialise in one area of the game, usually either batting or bowling. The closest any team will usually have to a specialist fielder is the wicket keeper, who is often a specialist batter as well as a wicket keeper.

This makes them what is known as an all-rounder, i. To decide who bats or bowls first, there is a coin toss, and the winning captain decides what they would like to do. The aim of the game is to score more runs over the course of two innings than the opposing team. An innings is over when either 10 of the 11 batsmen are out or, if the captain believes they have enough runs and chooses to declare.

If all four innings are unable to be completed over the course of five days, then the game is declared a draw. In order to score a run, the batting team must hit the ball and run to the other end of the pitch before the bowling team can remove the bails on the stumps a set of three poles at each end of the wicket.

Multiple runs can be scored from one hit, but only if the batters believe they have the time to complete more than one. If the batter manages to hit the ball to the edge of the field — otherwise known as the boundary — then they and their team are immediately awarded four runs.

If they can hit the ball over the boundary without it bouncing first, then they and their team are immediately awarded six runs. These give higher reward because they require the batter to take more of a risk in the shot in order to achieve it.

The aim of bowling in test cricket is to bowl as many batters out or take their wickets while conceding as a few runs as possible. There are a number of different ways for a batsman to get out. The most common of these is to be caught out, where a member of the fielding side catches the ball after the batter has hit it without it having hit the ground. Second, there is Leg Before Wicket LBW which is where the ball hits the batter on their body apart from their hands in front of the stumps and the umpire judges that without this intervention the ball would have hit the stumps.

Thirdly, there is bowled, where the bowler hits the stumps with the ball. Next is run out, where the fielding team uses the ball to the bails on top of the stumps with the batters attempting a run and failing to get to the other end in time. Batters can also be out judged to have obstructing the field, either by purposefully getting in the way of the fielding team doing their job or by handling the ball.