After contempraries Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith also opposes 4-day Test

With the idea of four-days-test getting a range of reactions, Australian cricketer Steve Smith also opposed the idea, stating that he is more comfortable with the usual format. The ICC wants to try out the four-day Test matches during the next FTP cycle between 2023-2031 in order to get more free days for the commercially lucrative shorter formats. 

A four-day Test match was last played in July 2019 between England and Ireland. South Africa and Zimbabwe also played the four-day Test match once in 2017. Indian skipper Virat Kohli and his Deputy Rohit Sharma had also earlier disapproved the idea of the 4-day test, citing that the game would then go on to become nothing but a domestic game.

Steve Smith further cited his level of comfort with the usual format and said, 

“I am comfortable with five days. I like the challenge of a five-day Test match. Obviously, there has been a lot of talk about the four-day Tests, but my personal opinion is I like five days. I don’t make the decisions obviously of how it all works out but my opinion is five-days Tests is what it is all about,” he said.

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Kohli Not In Favour Of Four-day Tests

Earlier, Indian captain, Virat Kohli had strongly opposed the "four-day Test" proposed by the ICC as he is not in favour of any alterations which hurts the sanctity of the traditional five-day format. The ICC wants to try out the four-day Test matches during the next FTP cycle between 2023-2031 in order to get more free days for the commercially lucrative shorter formats. While this is at the proposal stage, Cricket Australia had expressed its intention of trying out the format even though senior bowler Nathan Lyon termed it "ridiculous".

"According to me, it should not be altered. As I said, the day-night is another step towards commercialising Test cricket and you know, creating excitement around it, but it can't be tinkered with too much. I don't believe so," Kohli, one of the biggest names in world cricket, told media persons on the eve of the first T20 against Sri Lanka.

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(with inputs from agencies)