International Cricket Council (ICC)’s the radical idea of mandatory four-day Test matches from the 2023 cricket cycle has not found many supporters apart from South African captain Faf du Plessis, Irfan Pathan and a handful of other former and current cricketers. On the other hand, the majority of former greats and current star players have actually ridiculed the idea of tinkering with the oldest format of the game.

The cricket’s governing body wants to reduce the number of days from five to four in order to make room for more ICC events, which are more popular and financially viable for them and also to bring in more spectators to the ground for Test matches. The day-night Tests are in their infancy and slowly getting popular with Team India finally embracing the idea as well.

Rohit Sharma has a funny response to ICC’s idea

As far as Indian cricketers are concerned about this idea of four-day Test matches, only Irfan Pathan has supported the initiative; while the likes of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, and many more have rejected four-day Tests that they feel is tinkering with one of the purest forms of the game and feel they are doing it for the sake of it.

Meanwhile, Indian opener and limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma had a better response when asked about this four-day Test idea. “If it is a four-day, it is not a Test match. Four-day means a first-class match. It is as simple as that,” Rohit was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. Sharma is on a break from cricket after playing non-stop for almost 2 years and he was rested for the Sri Lanka series.

Virat Kohli, the Indian captain has already mentioned that ICC should not touch the Test matches and tinkering with it might not be a good idea. “According to me, it should not be altered. As I said, the day-night is another step towards commercializing Test cricket and you know, creating excitement around it, but it can’t be tinkered with too much. I don’t believe so,” Kohli had said in a press conference on the eve of first T20I against Sri Lanka in Guwahati.

Watch: Irfan Pathan’s interview post his retirement