CHENNAI: India hardly had to break any sweat to defeat a young West Indies side in the recently concluded four-Test series as they won 2-0 in the overseas tour.
With the West Indies selectors overlooking many of the prominent players and some of the stars opting out of the Test series, the hosts surrendered meekly to their opponents.
However, the West Indies will be a completely different opposition when they take on India in two T20s in Florida on August 27 and 28.
The World T20 champions will comprise the likes of
Chris Gayle,
Sunil Narine, Keiron Pollard and
Dwayne Bravo and will pose a strong challenge to the Indian team. With such a major difference between the two sides, it raises the question of whether players look at the T20 format differently.
Former Australian all-rounder
Michael Bevan, who is the coach of Madurai Super Giants in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), said that he foresees players playing only in T20s.
"Well, it depends on how much control the administrators want to have over that aspect. I think we have already seen how West Indian players are doing that. Instead of playing Test cricket, they are moving around to different markets, different teams and different competitions but just within the sphere of Twenty20 cricket. So I think it's already started to happen."
"I think it will probably increase, unless it's controlled by the governing bodies of cricket. They will probably do so unless it becomes more business orientated where the businesses make the decisions and the monetary rewards factor into players' decisions," Bevan told TOI in a recent chat.