Following a discussion on the future of Test cricket – a topic that is the subject of an in-depth feature in this month’s Wisden Cricket Monthly – regular Wisden Cricket Weekly Podcast host Yas Rana argued that it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to become regarded as great player in all three formats at the same time.

Here’s how the conversation between Yas and Wisden Cricket Monthly editor-in-chief Phil Walker played out:

Yas Rana: I think Virat Kohli is the only current player who’s a great player in all three formats. Even Ben Stokes has struggled a bit in T20 cricket.

Phil Walker: How dare you. Take that back.

YR: Don’t get me wrong, he’s brilliant but he hasn’t quite reached the ridiculous heights he’s reached in T20 cricket that he has in the other two formats. That’s not criticising him, it’s just being realistic about how hard it is to be genuinely world class in all three formats. To expect every young player who comes through to aspire to be that is unrealistic.

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People are going to be naturally better at one format than the others. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with young players coming through saying that they want to be the best T20 players in the world, I probably don’t have the skillset to be a brilliant Test players.

PW: Fair point and Woakes touches on this in the roundtable [part of the feature in this month’s Wisden Cricket Monthly]. He says that the games have never looked more different as they are now. They are diverging ever more.

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