On Thursday, October 16, cricket legends AB de Villiers, Harbhajan Singh, Matthew Hayden, and Clive Lloyd introduced the new cricket format, ‘Test Twenty’, which will be first played next year. Also called the ‘Fourth Format’, the aim of this new format is to discover talents in the age group of 13-19 years and will be a combination of both forms, T20 and Tests.
What is the Test Twenty format and what are its characteristics?
It is quite interesting that the game has changed from Test cricket to the shortest format of the game and the legends, who are also on the advisory board, have decided to merge the two formats. The new format will allow a team to bat and bowl twice and a total of 80 overs will be bowled in a single day.
The matches will be played with a red ball and it will be the same as a Test in terms of leads, trials, etc. The only difference will be that each innings will be of 20 overs. Each team is allowed to have a four-over-long Powerplay during the match and can also enforce the follow-on if the first innings lead is 75 runs or more. The bowlers can be a maximum of five in the match and the maximum for each bowler is 8 overs.
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Test Twenty architect speaks on the exciting new format
Gaurav Bahirvani, the Fourth Format architect, while addressing the audience at the launch event on Thursday, stated, “We’ve amalgamated Test cricket with T20 and made it into a format that provides today’s generation what they desire, the intensity with significance. If you observe the surroundings, you cannot find a single platform that can unify the youth cricketers. Every country has its own system but you have never seen kids aged 13-19 as a part of a single franchise playing together.”
Gaurav Bahirvani has commented, “That like the IPL, the multicultural atmosphere with the children will surely be a great new entry into the cricket world.”
Above all, the new concept is probably going to be introduced in January. Besides, Lloyd, Hayden, AB de Villiers, and Harbhajan are all part of the Test Twenty advisory board.
