5 most genuine Test-only players of all time
They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover. To know whether a book is solid, one must read it and only then can a verdict be put in place. However, to read a whole book, one need patience—that in itself is a perfect test to evaluate the character of a person.
In this time of internet, where social media has become one of the greatest source of distraction, book-readers are decreasing by the day. People are more interested in watching a movie based on a book than read the book itself.
The analogy here is that the number of viewers of Test cricket is falling at a similar rate, thanks to the surge of T20 cricket. People, especially the younger ones, are more inclined towards the shortest format of the game and the glory of Test cricket isn’t as shining as it used to be.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that Test cricket is real cricket. Like you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t rate a player’s caliber by only his T20 performances—it is his displays in the longest format of the game that depicts true ability.
The documentary Death of a Gentleman explores if Test cricket is dying. Here's a trailer of the movie:
Some players are just born to play Test cricket. Their performances in the other formats leave a point of doubt, but in Tests, they were/are the best at what they do. Without further ado, let's take a look at the 5 most genuine Test players of all time:
[PLEASE NOTE: The list has players who excelled in Tests, but failed to perform as well in the shorter formats]
Shivnarine Chanderpaul
If a list of the most underrated players is made, he would make it to every one of them. In a time when people only laud the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara and so on, most don’t even mention his name while discussing the greatest Test players.
Indeed, even his own country’s cricket board couldn’t show him the respect that he so deserved. But for what it is worth, he is a cricketing legend in his own right.
And the numbers speak for themselves. With an average of 51.37 in 280 innings, he scored 11867 runs while scoring 30 centuries in the process—carving his name among the best ever West Indian players.