The toughest, purest, longest, and most prestigious form of the game.
Test cricket is the pinnacle format of the sport, played over five days with each team allotted two innings. It demands skill, strategy, patience, fitness, and mental toughness that no other format challenges to the same extent.
Considered the “highest standard” of cricket, Tests are where legends are forged.
A Test match lasts up to 5 days, each day containing three sessions: morning, afternoon, and evening. Lunch and tea breaks are predefined.
Each team plays two innings. A team’s innings ends when they are all out, declare, or run out of players to continue due to injury.
There is no limit on the number of overs in an innings. A bowler cannot bowl two overs consecutively but may bowl unlimited total overs.
The batting team’s captain may declare the innings closed at any time to gain a strategic advantage, such as giving bowlers enough time to dismiss the opposition.
If Team A leads by 200+ runs after the first innings (in a 5-day match), they may enforce a follow-on, making Team B bat again immediately.
Test matches can end in a Win, Loss, Draw, or Tie (extremely rare). Draw happens when time runs out before the match concludes.
Tests evolve slowly, allowing dramatic swings in momentum and tactical depth.
Pitch deterioration, reverse swing, declarations, and session tactics make Tests intensely cerebral.
Bowlers deliver hundreds of balls across days; batters face long grinding innings.
From Don Bradman to modern legends, Test cricket forms the backbone of cricket’s legacy.