Away successes strengthen case for scrapping the toss

Test cricket is going through an unusual stage. For the first time in a while, away teams appear to be winning Test series, with England’s whitewash of Sri Lanka followed by New Zealand’s remarkable series victory against Pakistan. As it stands, India also look likely to take a 1-0 series lead in Australia. Away victories have been extremely rare in the past couple of years, and this new trend is a refreshing change that has brought some fantastic series.

Home advantage has long been a talking point for Test cricket, and the toss has quite rightly been at the forefront of the discussion. The problem that arises is that when teams have home advantage as well as toss advantage in their favour, it presents an almost impossible task for touring teams. Even with the away side having the choice whether to bat or bowl, a good team should still be more than capable of winning at home.

Last winter’s Ashes series saw England win 4 out of 5 tosses and still lose 4-0 simply because there was a gulf in class between the two teams, and this is the way matches should be decided, not by the flip of a coin as so often happens.

England’s victory in Sri Lanka saw Joe Root win all three tosses and created a far more compelling series than otherwise may have been the case. The matches were still close, but the reality is that England were the better team by quite some stretch. Should Sri Lanka have won all 3 tosses they would’ve likely run away with the series, buoyed by having both home advantage and toss advantage. The question is whether that would have been a truly fair outcome with the gulf in class between the teams.

Poor old India were particularly unfortunate this summer on their tour of England, losing every single toss on their way to a 4-1 loss. While it was still a thrilling Test series, one wonders what would’ve happened had India been given the choice? India are a high-quality team and played admirably in English conditions despite never having the choice at the toss, and it would have been even more compelling viewing and a fairer fight if they were given the toss.

Test cricket needs to solve its issue of predictability to keep people interested, and the recent examples of away teams winning the toss has sparked a brilliantly unpredictable set of results. What is striking about all these instances is that the team with more quality and better prepared has come out on top, and this is what Test cricket needs more of.

Home advantage is enough of a hurdle for touring teams to tackle, and when combined with toss advantage creates a deadly cocktail that often kills potentially thrilling Test series. All cricket fans want to see close series that aren’t decided on the toss of the coin, and it’s time the away teams were handed some slack. All cricket fans want to believe their team has a fair chance of winning when they go on tour and having a free choice would at the toss is the best way of achieving it.