'Things are gonna have to change' - AB de Villiers blames T20s, ICC and poor scheduling for Test cricket's downfall

Former South Africa captain AB de Villiers expressed his disappointment as there was no third Test between India and Proteas. The hosts won the first Test in Centurion while India clinched the second match in Cape Town to level the series 1-1, which dismissed the teams from triumphing in the series.  

De Villiers went on to raise concerns over the future of red-ball cricket, stating nothing is going right in Test cricket. Notably, cricket pundits including Ravi Shastri have spoken about the issues in Test cricket earlier. 

“I am very upset about the fact that we didn’t get a third Test. Once again you got to blame T20 cricket around the world, the ICC, the scheduling. I don’t know who is there to blame. All I know is something is not right. If you want to see more Test cricket things are gonna have to change. There will be enough cricket between India and Australia and England, I can tell you that. But if you want to see all the teams in the world competing to see who is the best Test team in the world, something will have to change," he said on YouTube. 

Cape Town was a pretty stock-standard wicket in my opinion: De Villiers

The legendary wicketkeeper-batter further spoke about the Newlands pitch, which has become a topic of discussion after the second Test. Interestingly, the second Test was completed in just 642 balls (107 overs), the shortest in history. In addition, it marked India's first-ever Test win in Cape Town.

“It (Cape Town) was a pretty stock-standard wicket in my opinion. I remember jumping around there on Day 1. If you can just get through the first session on Day 1, it gets easier. If you see the players who were playing their shots and not hanging around, they were the ones doing well,” the 39-year-old added.

“I remember Ben Stokes scoring a double hundred there. I myself scored some hundreds there. You can’t allow bowlers like Philander, Bumrah, Siraj, Rabada to keep bowling on off-stump," he further said.