Five limited-overs specialists who are perfectly apt for Test cricket

Brutally aggressive players, be it with the bat or the ball are usually confined to white-ball cricket. These cricketers are tagged to be the ‘limited-overs specialists’. Very seldom, they get a chance to play in the whites in the early parts of their careers. However, it is their immensely brimming talent which proves everyone wrong and helps shrug off the extra tags. Over the years, we’ve witnessed several cricketers take their white-ball game into the longest format and excel more than anyone could ever imagine. Andrew Symonds, David Warner, Rishabh Pant are some of the cricketers in the recent times who many thought would only play the shorter formats of the game. But when confronted with an opportunity, they ended up proving the entire world wrong. In the present times, we have quite a few ‘limited-over specialist’ cricketers who turned the tables with their talent and could be perfectly apt for Test cricket as well. Here are five cricketers who fit in perfectly for Test cricket: 1. Rohit Sharma Rohit Sharma of India. (Photo Source: Twitter) Rohit Sharma made his international debut all the way back in 2007. A young talent filled-up with immense talent had a start-stop career initially. But he made his mark after he was sent in to open the innings in limited-overs cricket in 2013. In the same year, he made his Test debut and didn’t let the opportunity go out of his hand. Rohit started off with two centuries in the first two games. However, he slowly began to fade away in the format. He didn’t get regular opportunities and failed to capitalize on them whenever he got one. Furthermore, Rohit was widely looked at as a middle-order batsman in Tests despite the success as an opener in ODIs and T20Is. But with Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan failing; India are having problems to find a reliable opening pair, Sharma is again into the contention and this time to open. Although the management doesn’t seem to have a keen interest in playing him at that spot, he could come good if provided with another opportunity. 2. Jason Roy Jason Roy of England. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) England’s limited-overs opener, Jason Roy is yet to make his Test debut. He is restricted to the shorter formats because of his aggressive style of play. His strike rate is over 100 in the ODIs and therefore, many write him off for the longer format of the game. However, with Alastair Cook retiring and England not having found a reliable opening pair opens up the doors for Jason Roy to make his contention for the Test team. Roy has got a great first-class record and is pretty experienced. In the 80 first-class games that he played, the 28-year-old has scored 4,572 runs at an average close to 40 and strike rate of above 80. In the three innings he played in county cricket for Surrey this year, Roy scored 196 runs at an average of 65 including a century. 3. Rashid Khan Rashid Khan bowling. (Photo Source: Twitter) Right in his teen years, this young prodigy from Afghanistan has made a huge name for himself. The leg-spinners and the googlies that are bowled by Rashid Khan have even outfoxed some of the best in the business. He is one of the top-ranked bowlers in the world at the moment both in ODIs and T20Is. The 20-year-old already has 184 internationals in white-ball cricket. Rashid Khan could also be highly successful in the whites with the amount of variety that he has got. Although he failed miserably in Afghanistan’s first ever Test against India, it would’ve been a huge learning curve for him. The Nangarhar-born cricketer is talented enough to replicate his limited-overs success in Test cricket as well. 4. Aaron Finch Aaron Finch. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) Aaron Finch is another cricketer who only played white-ball cricket for a majority of his career. He is quite an attacking cricketer and likes to take the game onto the bowlers early in his innings. As a result, he played 135 international games before he made his Test debut. Seven years after his international debut, at the age of 31, Aaron Finch made his debut against Pakistan. He scored 111 runs in two innings in Dubai. Although he has got an aggressive instinct, Finch seemed to be pretty calm and chilled with his work. He wasn’t in any hurry and could prove to be a good Test cricketer in the long run. 5. Jos Buttler Jos Buttler of England (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images) The 28-year-old wicket-keeper batsman has the ability to tear apart any opposition bowling lineup on his day. This is what has got the selectors eyes on him in the initial days of his career. Jos Buttler strikes the ball at close to 120 in ODIs and 140 in T20Is. However, his journey is Test cricket wasn’t as fruitful initially. His Test career can be divided into two halves. From 2014 to 2016, he was given a long run and played in 18 Tests. However, Buttler only managed to score 784 runs at an average of 31 and was highly inconsistent during this period. But he made a comeback into the side again in 2018 as a completely different cricketer. In the seven games he featured this year, Buttler added 510 runs at an average of 46 and seems to have a long Test career ahead.

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Five limited-overs specialists who are perfectly apt for Test cricket

The aggression of these players can change the dynamics of Test format in the years to come.

5. Jos Buttler

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