‘Free burgers! Free hot chips’: Two-day Test cricket is drab and damaging to the game

Mackay: ”Ok then, we can go to the pub early.” The laconic voice from below the makeshift press box rather summed up the sense of anti-climax as Nathan Lyon pouched two wickets to end the second Test only three balls into its fifth session.

Ten minutes before the scheduled close of play on day two, the only cricket being played in Mackay was by the Harrup Park general manager and his staff, who enjoyed a lighthearted game on a surface that had reaped 30 wickets in 750 total balls: the fourth shortest completed Test match in history.

For Australia, this was a pleasingly clinical display with the ball and in the field. Mitchell Starc, captain Pat Cummins and Lyon bowled with speed, venom and guile respectively to snuff out Bangladesh – Josh Hazlewood was also useful, lacking only a more generous helping in the wickets column.

Of course there are still multiple question marks over an Australian batting lineup that cobbled first innings tallies of 198 and 210 across these two games. In particular, Marnus Labuschagne will be nervously awaiting the makeup of the Test squad soon to be named for South Africa.

In parallel, there will be discussions to be had about the batting order in general. Cameron Green has prospered at number five, much as Usman Khawaja and Travis Head did before him, but the rest of the top seven has been nowhere near productive enough. Labuschagne may be due a try in another position, while Head’s place at the top of the order is also open to some debate.

“If we want to stay number one in the world and really win every Test match and be as good as we think we can be, I think we were a little bit below par both Test matches,” Cummins said. “Greeny had an awesome series, every time he batted he looked really solid.

“But we probably could have extended that lead yesterday, taken the game away from them and put on a 250-plus lead. When they had that little run of wickets last night, how do we weather that storm, a couple of top order wickets that maybe they’d like another crack at.”

But the biggest issue with Mackay was not one limited to the shortcomings of either team. When Australia beat South Africa inside two days at the Gabba in December 2022, the game was memorable because it was such a breathless outlier.

Australia’s previous two-day Test had been in the UAE against Pakistan as far back as 2002. There had only been three other instances in the whole of the 20th century. Over the vast sweep of history, Test cricket had allowed for plenty of ebb as well as flow, allowing spectators to settle in, players to adapt, and stories to develop.

Now, however, Australia have hosted three such matches in their past seven Tests, and the rush of wickets is becoming rather humdrum. Spectators in Mackay were actually cheering any not out verdict from the umpires on Sunday, not through any lack of patriotism, but simply because they wanted to see more cricket.

Cummins defended the pitch prepared in Mackay, pointing more to poor batting than the presence of too much grass on a hard surface.

“I think if every Test was like this, then perhaps [I would be worried],” Cummins said.