By Gaurav Bahirvani, Founder, Test Twenty
When Boria Majumdar wrote a piece on 18 May 2026, and raised the same point on his YouTube channel, that Test Twenty could become a bigger game-changer by expanding its age limit to Under-21, I read it carefully. Not because I needed external validation, but because it was a serious argument made by a serious cricket mind, and serious arguments deserve serious deliberation.
So we deliberated. Long and hard.
Test Twenty was conceived as a youth format- a platform for the world’s most talented U-19 cricketers, boys and girls alike, to compete at the highest level of structured professional cricket before the traditional system has had a chance to fully absorb them. That founding principle has not changed. It will not change.
But here is something I have come to understand more deeply over the months since we launched this concept: the talent pipeline in cricket is not a clean funnel. It is messy, uneven, and at times, heartbreakingly unfair. A 17 year old from a smaller cricket nation may simply not have had the infrastructure at the right age. A 19 year old in a highly competitive domestic system may have been exceptional and still not been picked because there were six others exactly like him and only three spots. A 20 year old fast bowler may have had a stress fracture at exactly the wrong time.
These players are not failures. They are late bloomers. And late bloomers, in cricket as in life, often become the most complete players of their generation.
Boria’s argument pushed us to confront a question we had been holding at arm’s length: are we, by capping eligibility at U-19, inadvertently closing the door on some of the world’s most promising young talent?
The honest answer was yes.
So, after detailed internal deliberation, I am pleased to announce that Test Twenty will open its doors to players in the 19-21 age group, effective immediately in our talent identification and trials process.
But we are doing it on our own terms, with structure and intent.
Players in the 19-21 age group will be evaluated through a separate set of assessment parameters during trials. We are not asking an eighteen year old and a twenty one year old to compete on the same scale. The older players bring different physical maturity, game awareness, and lived experience.
Under Test Twenty’s proprietary Parity Rule, every franchise will field two squads – one girls’ squad and one boys’ squad. With the extension of the age limit to 21, each franchise will now be permitted to include a maximum of four players from the 19-21 age group: two girls and two boys. This expands the squad structure to 18 girls and 18 boys per franchise. The cap is intentional. At its core, Test Twenty remains a platform built for the very young.
In the Playing XI, only one girl and one boy from the 19-21 category will be eligible to feature at any given time. The overwhelming majority of every Test Twenty side on the field will still consist of U-19 players. That is non-negotiable.
This structure reinforces the foundation upon which Test Twenty has been built – true competitive parity. Boys and girls compete together under the same roof, within the same franchise, and on the same stage. Every match is played by both Playing XIs of each franchise, the girls and the boys, and no franchise can ever win without the collective contribution, performance, and impact of both.
Every provision introduced for older boys has been mirrored equally for older girls: two and two, one and one. In Test Twenty, parity is not symbolic. It is structural. What the 19-21 players bring beyond runs and wickets is experience, resilience, and mentorship. They have been through selection processes, rejections, and the particular pressure that comes with almost making it. That wisdom, shared in a dressing room full of teenage players, is invaluable.
This decision is also deeply aligned with our global scouting philosophy. In many countries, the infrastructure to identify talent at U-19 simply does not exist at the same level as in established cricket nations. The 19-21 window gives those players a second chance at a first opportunity. We are looking for wonderful talent, girls and boys both, across the world.
To every young cricketer in that age group who may be reading this: if you are talented, if you have worked hard, and if you were not picked for whatever reason, Test Twenty is now looking for you. We will design trials that allow you to show us what you can actually do. And if you are good enough, you will have a stage.
To Boria and the RevSportz team: thank you for putting this argument in the public domain with the rigour it deserved. The best ideas in cricket emerge from honest debate.
Test Twenty was built to expand opportunity. Today, we have expanded it a little further.
Gaurav Bahirvani is the Founder of Test Twenty, the world’s first professionally integrated mixed-gender youth cricket ecosystem and the home of the Fourth Format – created in India for the world.
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The post We Heard You. We Deliberated. And We’re Opening the Door Wider appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.
