Test cricket, approaching its 150th birthday, is being weighed by the men who watch it most closely, and the verdict depends on which numbers one reads. Andy Zaltzman's season-opening column finds a game that is neither fading nor flourishing in any simple way: bats are finding their range, draws have grown rare, and away sides are winning more often than the game has in living memory. Whether this is a turning of the tide or a brief, bright weather system, the record so far asks for patience rather than certainty.
Test cricket dying? Its statistics suggest a sport with more life in it than its critics admit
A medical chart that says dangerously ill and thriving at once
Mark
Why does a column about statistics matter for the future of Test cricket?
Mimi
Because the worry is usually that the format has gone stale. Zaltzman shows series are less predictable now: a third of series of more than two Tests this decade have had a comeback win, against 8.2% before.
Luke
That's one writer's reading of the data, though, and it's an opinion column. The numbers can be right while the conclusion is debatable.
Mark
What's driving the comebacks?
Mimi
He points to the near extinction of draws and to away teams winning more opening Tests, with 0.84 wins per defeat compared with 0.59 in 2000-2019.
Luke
Those are his proposed causes. The column doesn't prove them, and his remark about underprepared home sides is half a joke.
Mark
The season has also been batting-friendly.
Mimi
Yes, 36.5 runs per wicket across seven Tests, and three draws already.
Luke
Seven Tests is a tiny sample. He says himself it's too early to infer any real change.
Mark
And the crowds?
Mimi
He mentions in passing that the first two South Africa-Australia Tests drew small crowds, so the drama on the field didn't fill the stands.
Luke
Which the column doesn't follow up. Attendance is a separate question from quality, and it stays unanswered here.
O Pulso
- Bowlers are going wicketless at the slowest rate in years, and batters are carving the first seven Tests of 2026-27 into record-high run totals.
- Three draws in seven matches have unsettled a format that once settled into predictable stalemates, with one Zimbabwe-Afghanistan Test producing three scores of 500 or more.
- South Africa's climb from behind to beat Australia has tilted the old script, with comebacks now far more common than in any previous era of the sport.
- Durban's eleven ducks and dragging, overlong Tests have pushed the format to its limits, yet the series has pointedly refused to resolve into a single story.
- The sport is watching whether five-day cricket and the World Test Championship can keep this momentum, and the answer is still open.
Test cricket, approaching its 150th birthday, is being weighed by the men who watch it most closely, and the verdict depends on which numbers one reads. Andy Zaltzman's season-opening column finds a game that is neither fading nor flourishing in any simple way: bats are finding their range, draws have grown rare, and away sides are winning more often than the game has in living memory. Whether this is a turning of the tide or a brief, bright weather system, the record so far asks for patience rather than certainty.
Test cricket is nearing its 150th birthday, and Andy Zaltzman, the comedian and cricket writer, has been reading its chart. The notes, he suggests, say everything at once: the patient is dangerously ill, thriving, clinging to a precipice, and responding well to treatment. His column, published on 10 November 2026, tries to bring some order to that contradiction with the numbers from the season so far.
The 2026-27 season has opened as a batter's season. Across seven completed Tests, batters have scored at rates not seen since 2014-15, and bowlers have taken wickets less often than in recent years. Australia's collapses in South Africa were the main exception. There have also been three draws already, when the previous six seasons produced only eight in 120 matches. One of them, between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, became the first Test with three scores of 500 or more, a feat found in only two of more than 60,000 first-class matches.
The centrepiece is South Africa's come-from-behind win over Australia in October. It was one of the few such comebacks in recent cricket, and comebacks now appear far more often than in past decades. Zaltzman credits the near disappearance of draws, and a better record for away teams, with making this possible. Away sides now win far more matches than they lose, a shift he half-jokingly links to a congested calendar that leaves home teams as underprepared as the visitors.
The series itself swung between bat and ball. The Durban Test had eleven ducks, matching the Test record, and several Tests ran to hundreds of overs. South Africa's win rested on established stars and on players with thin Test records, including two batters who had struggled against the top sides before their centuries in Cape Town. Zaltzman calls the series a shot in the arm for five-day cricket and a vindication of the World Test Championship. He stops short of claiming a lasting change, saying it is too early to know. For now, the format is stirring, and nobody yet knows whether the patient is recovering or merely having a good week.
Test cricket is nearing its 150th birthday with a medical chart that contradicts itself, in the words of Andy Zaltzman, the stand-up comedian and cricket writer. Dangerously ill, thriving, clinging to a precipice, responding well to treatment: the notes, he says, support all of it. His column, published on 10 November 2026, tries to settle the argument with numbers from the season so far.
The 2026-27 season has opened as a batter's one. The seven completed Tests since the start of October have produced 36.5 runs per wicket, and bowlers have taken a wicket every 68.5 deliveries. Both are the highest figures since 2014-15. The main exception was Australia's series-losing collapses in South Africa.
There have also been three draws already. Across the 120 Tests of the previous six seasons, from 2023-24 to 2026, there were only eight. Among the drawn matches was one between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan, which became the first Test with three scores of 500 or more. In more than 60,000 first-class matches, that has happened only twice. Zaltzman notes that three draws in seven Tests would once have been unremarkable, and says he hopes it does not signal a return to joyless, defensive cricket.
The centrepiece is South Africa's come-from-behind series win over Australia in October. It was the sixth comeback in the 20 three-Test series begun this decade, and there have also been four in the ten series of more than three Tests in the 2020s. By comparison, there were only six in 116 three-Test series across the 2000s and 2010s, and six in 156 from the start of Test cricket to the end of the 1990s. Across all series of more than two Tests this decade, a third have featured a comeback, against 8.2% before. Zaltzman credits the near disappearance of draws, and a better record for away teams in opening Tests. Excluding draws, they now win 0.84 matches per defeat, up from 0.59 in 2000-2019 and 0.47 in 1980-1999. He half-jokingly suggests the congested calendar leaves home sides as underprepared as tourists.
The series itself swung between bat and ball. The two teams' bowlers combined for a wicket every 61 balls, the first time in 14 series in South Africa, over nine years, that the collective strike rate was slower than a wicket every ten overs. The Durban Test had 11 ducks, equalling the Test record, and 11 scores of 50-plus. No earlier Test had ten or more of each. Australia, at 370 for 4, lost by 176 runs, the third heaviest defeat for a team that was 40 runs ahead batting second with six or more wickets in hand. The first and third Tests ran to 360.1 and 399.3 overs, the longest in South Africa since January 2020. Only 16% of Tests since 2023 have passed 360 overs. Zaltzman adds a caveat: the crowds at the first two matches were small.
South Africa's win rested on established stars and on players with thin Test records. Before their second-innings centuries in Cape Town, Ryan Rickelton and Wiaan Mulder had batted 28 times combined against the other top-five sides (India, Australia, England, New Zealand) without a half-century. South Africa have now played 11 deciding final Tests since 2000 in series of at least three matches that began level, winning seven, drawing two and losing two, the best record of any side this millennium. Australia are last, with ten played, two won, two drawn and six lost.
Zaltzman calls the series a shot in the arm for five-day cricket and an endorsement of the flawed but vital World Test Championship. He stops short of claiming a lasting shift, saying it is too early. Still, he points to Towhid Hridoy's 242 out of Bangladesh's 386 as a timely reminder, a few months before the anniversary of Charles Bannerman's 165 in the first Test innings in 1877.
Citações Notáveis
It is too early to infer any significant change in how red-ball cricket is played, but the start has been promising.— Andy Zaltzman, Cricinfo (paraphrased)
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