Harbhajan Singh on test cricket’s biggest problem is blunt: patience is dying. He played 103 Tests across 17 years. He bowled through the era when batters stayed for days and the era when they tried to finish matches in two. In a PTI podcast interview, he identified what changed and what was lost.
“In this era of T20s, the current generation do not possess the requisite patience like batters of yesteryears. There are very few who can grind it out and score a 250 or 300 in an innings because if you play so many shots, there will always be a chance of getting dismissed.”
Harbhajan Singh, PTI podcast, August 14, 2026
Test triple centuries prove his point. Since 2016, only four batters have reached 300 in an innings.
| Batter | Score | Opponent | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azhar Ali | 302* | West Indies | 2016 |
| David Warner | 335* | Pakistan | 2019 |
| Harry Brook | 317 | Pakistan | 2024 |
| Wiaan Mulder | 367* | Zimbabwe | 2025 |
Four in a decade. Between 2001 and 2010, there were more than a dozen. Harbhajan named the generation that could attack and stay: Brian Lara (400*), Sehwag (two triple centuries at ODI strike rates), Gayle, Hayden, de Villiers, Kallis. The current generation attacks and leaves.
Harbhajan traced the shift to 2001. While most teams scored 250 in a day, Steve Waugh’s Australia targeted 350. That was calculated dominance, not recklessness. The rest of cricket spent a decade catching up.
“So from then (2001) to now, Test cricket has seen a complete transformation as to how teams approach. If you look at how England play the Tests (Bazball), they are trying to score 500 in a day and in that bid you can also get out for 70 or 80.”
Harbhajan Singh, PTI podcast, August 14, 2026
England’s Bazball is the logical conclusion of what Australia started. The difference: Bazball treats aggression as philosophy, not advantage. When it fails, teams collapse under 100. The five-day contest Harbhajan describes is gone either way.
The IPL accelerated this by changing what young cricketers chase. Harbhajan pointed to players who scored heavily in domestic cricket for years, like Amol Mujumdar and Amarjeet Kaypee, and never got a cap. Now the IPL offers fame, money, and an India call-up in one season. Red-ball cricket demands years for uncertain returns. White-ball cricket makes careers overnight.
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Sachin Tendulkar arrived at Sydney for the fourth Test against Australia in January 2004 with series scores of 0, 1, 37, 0, and 44. Australia had identified his cover drive as the weakness. So Sachin eliminated the shot entirely. He batted over 10 hours, faced 436 balls, scored 241 not out, and did not play one cover drive. Steve Waugh confirmed their plan revolved around that shot. Sachin refused to engage.
That is the standard Harbhajan is measuring the current generation against. Not 241 runs. The willingness to remove your best shot because the situation demanded it. No T20-trained batter today would attempt it. Most would not survive the first session of trying.
The Suspense That Disappeared
Harbhajan said the charm of Test cricket was that matches ran five days, and on day five, nobody knew who would win. That uncertainty required patience from both sides. Slow rebuilds, sessions where nothing happened, then everything changed. The format tested character like nothing else in sport.
Test cricket still exists. But the version where a spinner bowled 40 overs in a day and a batter faced 300 balls without reaching a century is disappearing. Whether that is progress or erosion depends on what you believe the format was built to test.
Also Read:
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- Rahane Warns Test Cricket May Not Survive Without Change
- Cummins on BBL, IPL Money, and What It Means for Test Cricket
- Sreesanth Challenges Harbhajan to a Boxing Match Over Slapgate
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