5 cricketers who made a successful transition from Tests to T20s
T20 cricket has its own set of requirements and these requirements are different from other formats of the game.
Hence, it is commonly believed that a single player cannot achieve success in all three formats. However, there have been exceptions to this and the most interesting ones are of players who made a successful transition from Tests to T20s.
The basics of cricket remain same in all formats and hence some believe that it is relatively easy for Test players to adapt to the conditions of T20 cricket.
Have a look at the five cricketers, who began their career in Tests but made their mark in T20s by altering their techniques.
#5. Daniel Vettori- The unnoticed spin threat
The batting team takes full toll of the powerplays and races to a quickfire start. The openers play brash, reckless yet effective strokes, and amass a big total in the opening overs.
Just when the batting team looks to dominate the game, the spinner comes into the action in the middle overs and suddenly the runs dry out. The scoring rate drops, boundaries become scarce and batsmen lose wickets owing to the pressure.
The spinner runs through his overs and the batting team is unable to finish off well in the death overs thanks to the irreparable damage done by the spinner in the death overs.
In his seven years in T20I, Daniel Vettori played the role of that spinner who didn't claim many wickets but was almost impossible to score against. The left-arm spinner maintained an economy rate of 5.70 in 34 T20I which is a phenomenal achievement.
Before venturing in the T20 arena, Vettori had a decade long experience of playing Test cricket, a format in which he was among the best in the business.
He utilized his Test match skills in T20s and reaped tremendous success. He thrived on accuracy and outfoxed the batsmen with his variations and subtle change of pace.
He wasn't an ideal wicket-taker but by creating pressure from one end, he allowed other bowlers to pick wickets from the other end.
The underrated bowler finished with an economy rate of just above six after featuring in 143 matches and has 131 wickets in his bag along with 362 Test wickets.