The game of cricket has become very fast and exciting with time, where the dominance of ODI and T20 (White Ball Cricket) formats speaks volumes in the whole world. Modern day cricket fans love to watch explosive batsmen who hit fours and sixes. Players playing in these formats get the status of global superstars, whose fan following is spread all over the world. But cricket experts believe that the real test of any batsman and the measure of his technical proficiency is the traditional red ball cricket i.e. Test match. In the history of cricket, there have been many great and dreaded white ball specialist players who stunned the bowlers in limited overs matches, but when they were tried on the long and difficult pitches of Test cricket, they completely failed to leave their mark. 1. Aaron Finch – The uncrowned king of T20, but did not make it in Tests. The first name in this list is that of Australia's explosive opener and former limited overs captain Aaron Finch. During his illustrious career, Aaron Finch had created awe in the minds of bowlers around the world with his stormy batting and captaincy in ODI and T20 International cricket. He also holds the record for the highest individual innings in T20 cricket. But when he got a chance to play Test cricket for Australia, his performance fell far short of expectations. In Test matches, his technique faltered in front of long spells and swinging balls, due to which he could never become a regular player in the Test format in his career and he had to be dropped after just a few matches. 2. Glenn Maxwell – The white ball magic of 'The Big Show' faded in the Test. Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, famous for his unique 360-degree batting and destroying the bowlers, is known as 'The Big Show' in the cricket world. When Maxwell is in his best form in ODI and T20, any bowling attack in the world looks helpless in front of him. He has many historic and fast-paced centuries to his name in limited overs. However, when it came to Test cricket, Maxwell's aggressive style and habit of occasionally playing risky shots against spin became a thorn in his side. He got very few opportunities to showcase his talent in Test cricket and failed to make a permanent place in the traditional format. 3. Shahid Afridi – 'Boom-Boom' Afridi's Test career was far from expectations. Shahid Afridi, one of the biggest and popular match-winning players in the history of Pakistan cricket, was known all over the world for his explosive and aggressive batting. When he came to the crease, the noise of the spectators in the stadium was worth seeing. In ODI and T20, he made Pakistan win many impossible matches on the basis of his stormy innings. But Test cricket has a completely different temperament, where patience and technical composure are required. Afridi's nature has always been to play fast, due to which he was unable to prolong his innings in Test matches. He played only a few Test matches in his career and in this format his bat never roared the way it did with the white ball. 4. Eoin Morgan – The captain who won the World Cup for England, the former flopped Test captain who gave modern and aggressive thinking to English cricket, is counted among the most successful white ball captains in the world. With his brilliant captaincy and cool style of batting in the middle order, he led England to the ODI World Cup title for the first time in the year 2019. Morgan scored a mountain of runs in limited overs cricket and became a global icon. On the contrary, when he took to the Test cricket field for England, he was completely unable to repeat his success in the red ball format. Constant questions were raised about his technique and consistency of scoring runs in Test matches, due to which he had to stay out of the Test team for a long time. 5. Kevin Pietersen – Test legend, but T20 leagues made him the ultimate white ball icon. Kevin Pietersen's name is a little different in this list because he scored a lot of runs in Test cricket and became a great batsman, but in the last and most extreme phase of his career, he emerged as the biggest white ball superstar of T20 leagues around the world. The kind of dominance Pietersen had in the early stages of T20 cricket had made him synonymous with the shortest format. However, there are many batsmen in modern cricket who became superstars only on the basis of T20 and franchise leagues and did not turn to Test cricket. The journey of all these players proves that there is a world of difference between white ball and red ball cricket, and it is not necessary for a king of one format to be successful in the other.
