Vaibhav Tripathi
As he gears up to lead his team in the one-off Test against Ireland, England’s Test captain Ben Stokes confidently conveyed his belief in the bright future of Test cricket, showing no signs of worry.
While worries persist regarding the overshadowing of traditional long-format cricket by franchise Twenty20 matches, notable exceptions such as the upcoming five-match Ashes series have alleviated some of these concerns.
“I’ve always been a huge advocate of the Test format. The whole landscape and the whole game of cricket is literally just changing in front of everyone’s eyes so quickly,” Stokes told the reporters ahead of the Lord’s Test against Ireland.
“Look at what T20 has done for the game in general, the amount of attraction it’s brought, new fans, new players. It has brought into playing cricket regardless of the format and also what T20 has been able to bring in terms of Test cricket. So, I don’t see a world where T20 and Tests aren’t being played in the future.”
To commence the summer season, England will begin with a one-off Test against Ireland before facing Australia in the opening match of a five-game series on June 16, at Edgbaston, in Birmingham.