In MCC's recent survey for cricket fans, nearly 86% of all respondents said they preferred Test cricket over all other formats. Alongside, former cricketers from across generations - Allan Border, David Gower and Graeme Smith among others - have said that Virat Kohli's India is one of the big reasons why Test cricket will not die.
But that focus on resuscitating Test cricket for the purists, and using T20 cricket as a tool to reach the masses, has put the third format in a tight spot. Where ODIs were once the go-to format for nail-biting finishes, most bilateral ODI series these days are considered 'lacking in context', 'pointless', or, where Test cricket used to be: 'dying'.
Like it has been with Test cricket, the onus, whether they like it or not, falls on India to lead the way in terms of attracting eyeballs.
When India have toured (since the 2015 World Cup), their ODI teams have often destroyed opponents: 5-1 in South Africa, 4-1 in New Zealand, 5-0 in Sri Lanka, 3-1 in the West Indies, 3-0 in Zimbabwe. India's overwhelming dominance in away conditions could be a dampener for ODI cricket.
Who wants to dedicate eight hours to a game when one team is winning nearly every time they take the field?
Except that that's not true when the ODI series are in India. Then, you had better watch. Because it's in world cricket's new 'final frontier' that visiting teams up their games.
ODI cricket in India reminds us, time and again, how charming the classic 50-over format can be. Irrespective of whether teams bring their A-game to the table or not, or whether the hosts are susceptible to the pressures of home or not, ODI series in India have produced the most number of dramatic finishes in recent years.
Including the current India-Australia series that's deadlocked at 2-2, six of the last eight ODI series played in India have been undecided entering the final game. Here's a recap of how ODI cricket in India has made the format sexy again:
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1. India v Australia, 2013-14 (3-2) - Remember when we had seven-game series, and nobody batted their eyelids? The last time it was held in India, it made for one of the most topsy-turvy contests in recent memory. Two washed-out games added to the drama as teams successfully chased down 300-plus totals thrice.
It gave us James Faulkner's remarkable 29-ball 64 in Chandigarh. We saw Kohli hitting India's fastest ODI ton to help chase down 360 in 44 overs. And, of course, it was the series where Rohit Sharma scored the first of his three ODI double-centuries. With the series tied at 2-2 entering the seventh game, it was Rohit's 209 in Bengaluru that handed India a 57-run win to end the series.
2. India v South Africa, 2015-16 (2-3) - It was a series where teams exchanged blows right up to the decider in Mumbai, when South Africa's batsmen went berserk, including hundreds for three of their top four: Quinton de Kock (87-ball 109), Faf du Plessis (115-ball 133) and AB de Villiers (61-ball 119). That 214-run demolition job ended India's run of five series wins at home. It was a memorable series for de Villiers, in particular, where he struck three tons in five matches.
3. India v New Zealand, 2016-17 (3-2) - It was another series where both teams won alternating games. In a series of middling totals, unlike the two discussed earlier, Amit Mishra stood out with 15 wickets, seven clear at the top. In the second ODI, New Zealand made it 1-1 after staving off lower-order resistance from Hardik Pandya and Umesh Yadav to win by six runs. In the fourth , New Zealand needed to defend 260 to keep the series alive, and India faltered to finish at 241 after a Tim Southee special crippled their middle order. In the decider, though, India rode on the web of legspin that Mishra drew all around the New Zealand batsmen, bowling the visitors out for 79 and sealing the series.
4. India v England, 2014-15 (2-1) - The only series in our list not to have been decided in the final game, but it's one that cannot be ignored either. In the first ODI, Jason Roy (61-ball 73) and Ben Stokes (40-ball 62) clattered India's bowlers to post 350, only to see Kedar Jadhav (76-ball 120) outscoring Virat Kohli (105-ball 120) and sealing India's win. The second game witnessed the second-most runs scored in an ODI in India as the home side won by 15 runs at the end of a 747-run mayhem. It was also the game where we last saw the Yuvraj Singh-MS Dhoni combination in full flow. Yuvraj's 127-ball 150 and Dhoni's 134 helped India post 381 batting first. The final ODI, too, went down to the game's final moments as Chris Woakes and Jake Ball defended 27 in the last three overs to hand England a consolatory five-run win. It was a series that batsmen would remember for long: the 2090 runs scored in that series remain the most scored in any three-ODI series.
5. India v New Zealand 2017-18 (2-1) - In this three-game shootout, India went on the back foot as Kohli ended up on the losing side in his 200th ODI despite a first-innings hundred. A Tom Latham special, together with Ross Taylor's 95, gave New Zealand the early lead. But India roared back in the next game, restricting New Zealand to 230 on the back of Bhuvneshwar Kumar's three-for, after which Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik struck half-centuries to level the series. With all to play for, Rohit and Kohli struck centuries to post 337 in the final ODI, but half-centuries from Colin Munro, Kane Williamson and Latham brought New Zealand teasingly close to the target. New Zealand faltered right at the end, with Jasprit Bumrah defending 15 off the final over to hand India the series.
6. India v West Indies, 2018-19 (3-1) - Given how the two sides shaped up on paper, the series was not meant to go this way - at least for India. After the first ODI, where Shimron Hetmyer's 78-ball 106 was neutralised by 140-plus scores from Rohit and Kohli, many felt the series would go only one way. But when Shai Hope's last-ball four tied the second ODI, there was hope for the neutral. West Indies repeated their promising show from the second game into the third, bowling India out for 240 to win by 43 runs, and with the series at 1-1, the contest lay on a knife's edge. But India eventually found a way to win it, demolishing West Indies by 224 runs and nine wickets in the final two games, to once again establish status quo.