Cricket has evolved so much in the last decade or so. The influx of T20 cricket has shown the world that players who are not adept in the other two formats can still make it if they can star in the slam bang format of T20. Over the years that T20 was introduced as a concept, there have been so many players who have decided to play T20 over Tests or ODIs.
Here are five players who compromised Tests for T20s and ended up being pretty successful:
Glenn Maxwell:
The Australian is a good ODI player too, but is known to be one of the best in the T20 game. His ability to hit immediately may be appreciated more in the shortest format of the game and this has recorded on his stats in Test cricket. Maxwell has not been able to hit the lofty heights in Test cricket the way he has with T20.
He did score a century against India this year in the Tests but that has been the extent of his involvement in the longest format. He is one of the biggest draws in T20 cricket every year.
Tymal Mills:
The English bowler was one of the biggest draws at the IPL auction this year, going on to fetch a massive price for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and he was touted as a T20 specialist right from the time he made his debut.
He played in the series against India and managed to pick up a few wickets but his real talents shone through in the T20 series as he was able to stifle batsmen. He didn’t perform that well in the IPL and was dropped.
Sunil Narine:
West Indies had gotten a gem when they unearthed Sunil Narine in their squad as he was able to pick up wickets with his bowling and became a regular match winner for them. He didn’t however translate this onto the longer format of the game. Soon, with the stand-off between the board the players, Narine did not get to feature for the Test side too.
He is a very popular feature of T20 squads all over the world and they have leveraged this to the maximum.
David Miller:
The South African middle-order batsman rose to popularity following his innings with the KXIP against the RCB in the 2011 IPL. Since then, he has gone on to establish himself as one of the best T20 batsmen but not in the Test squad.
Miller has an eye for a shot and is a great hitter of the ball. He does lack the ability to stick around and grind an innings and this is one of the reasons he has not made it to the longer format.
Lasith Malinga:
Malinga called time on his Test career early on because he wanted to feature heavily in the limited overs formats. The call paid off as he went on to recently pick up 300 ODI wickets in addition to being one of the most deadly T20 bowlers.
He was always destined to become a great limited format player and has proven to be a valuable asset to the international T20 squad as well as the leagues that he is a part of.
By Rohit Nair
