County Cricket And The Question Of India's Red-Ball Batting Depth

For more than a decade, a summer stint in English county cricket served as a familiar finishing school for India's red-ball batters, sharpening technique against the moving ball before demanding overseas tours. In mid-2026, with several established names having stepped back from county commitments and a new-look Test top order taking shape, that traditional bridge is the subject of fresh scrutiny.

A changing county equation

Cheteshwar Pujara, who built a reputation across multiple seasons with Sussex and earlier Gloucestershire, exemplifies the era of the India batter sharpening his game in the County Championship. Having been let go by Sussex for the 2025 season, his trajectory underlines how fewer senior Indians now slot into county sides, with packed international and franchise calendars leaving little room for extended overseas red-ball cricket.

That has prompted questions about where the next generation will acquire the specific skills, leaving the ball, batting long, surviving the new ball in seaming conditions, that county cricket once reliably instilled.

Reshaping the Test order

The selectors' recent red-ball choices, including the recall of Karun Nair and the preference for certain options over others, reflect an attempt to rebuild a Test batting unit after the retirements of long-serving stalwarts. Domestic run-scorers now carry a heavier burden of proof, and the absence of a steady county pathway places more weight on India's own multi-day competitions to produce match-ready batters.

• Senior Indian batters now feature less in county cricket than a decade ago
• Pujara's Sussex departure marked the end of a long county association
• Packed international and franchise calendars limit overseas red-ball stints
• Karun Nair among those recalled as the Test order is rebuilt
• Domestic multi-day cricket carries greater development weight

What replaces the county route

With fewer players taking the county path, attention turns to whether India's domestic structure, anchored by the Duleep and Ranji trophies, and the India A programme can replicate the toughening effect of English conditions. Tours by India A to seam-friendly venues and a renewed emphasis on multi-day cricket in the calendar are part of that answer.

“County cricket used to do a lot of the heavy lifting on technique; now we have to build that into our own system more deliberately.”

— A former India batting coach, paraphrased

How successfully India internalise that development work, rather than outsourcing it to English summers, may shape the resilience of their Test batting through the rest of the decade.

The NE Times View

The retreat from county cricket is a quiet loss India should not shrug off. Those seaming, swinging English conditions forged the technique that won Tests abroad, and no domestic substitute fully replicates them. As a new top order beds in, the board would be wise to actively encourage overseas stints rather than let franchise calendars crowd out the hardest school in batting.

This article is original commentary and analysis by The NE Times. Background facts were referenced from ESPNcricinfo and The Hindu.