New Delhi: The Indian team will be opening their ICC World Test Championship campaign when they take the field Thursday against the West Indies in Antigua. This is the first time they will be wearing jerseys with numbers on the back, something which is seen in the shorter versions of the game. Earlier the shirts cricketers wore in Tests, did not have numbers on the back. This new development has certainly been a cause of excitement for some of the Indian cricketers.
The players posed with their new Test jerseys and made their opinion known on the same. “If that’s what’s going to help engage fans with the five-day format, it shouldn’t be a hassle for any of us because it is on the back of our shirts,” spinner R. Ashwin told ‘BCCI.TV’. “For me whatever helps fans engage with the oldest and the best format of the game is fine,” added the off-spinner.
Cheteshwar Pujara said that he had seen kit numbers in long form cricket in the County circuit before and that this will help fans identify players better. “If you look at the ODI and T20 format, players always have their names on the back. It becomes easy for the fans to identify the player and even for the players it feels good. You have your Test jersey number but at the same time when you have your own number on the shirt it feels great. I played County cricket and there they always had it,” Pujara said.
KL Rahul said that the complaint that he heard from his family and friends are that everyone looks the same on ground during Tests. This certainly will change with the introduction of jerseys with numbers.
“Nobody knows who’s who because most of us have beards and once we wear the helmets, you can’t really see who is batting. The numbers on the back… it’s just a bit more fun, a bit more colour,” Rahul pointed out.
IANS