The aggressive batting approach shaped by the T20 era has come at the expense of patience, said former India spinner Harbhajan Singh pointing to the dwindling number of marathon innings in the longest format by the younger crop of players.He recalled an earlier generation of Test batters who could combine aggression with their ability to bat for long periods and build massive scores.“In this era of T20s, the current generation do not possess the requisite patience like batters of yesteryears. There are very few who can grind it out and score a 250 or 300 in an innings because if you play so many shots, there will always be a chance of getting dismissed. Nowadays, very rarely would you see a batter scoring triple hundred in Tests,” Harbhajan said in a podcast interview with PTI.“Earlier there was Brian Lara, then Chris Gayle, Virender Sehwag, Matthew Hayden all of whom scored triple hundreds. Lara scored a 400. There was AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis who hit big double centuries.”The most recent Test triple-centurions have been Pakistan’s Azhar Ali in 2016, Australia’s David Warner in 2019, England’s Harry Brook in 2024 and South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder in 2025, underlining Harbhajan’s point about how infrequently such innings are now being produced.“When we started playing cricket, it was slightly slow-paced although it was consistent with the times that we were in. There were only a few batters who would deal in sixes.”Harbhajan, who made his India debut in 1998, said Australia were ahead of the curve in the way they approached Test batting in the early 2000s.“If I look from 2001, Aussies were the only team that would score quickly in Tests, ahead of its times. Others played normal cricket and score 250 runs in a day whereas Australia would look at scoring 350 in a single day every time, they dominated.”He said the acceleration in Test cricket also forced bowlers, particularly spinners, to adapt to increasingly attacking batting.“As I started playing more and more, every year Test cricket as a format also moved forward and the pace of the game got faster, spinners needed to be more connected (clued in). If you didn’t bring yourself up to speed against attacking games, you were bound to lag behind.”The former off-spinner said bowlers now need to think differently and find ways of forcing attacking batters to abandon their preferred shots.“So you got to come with a different plan and different mindset, how to stack up those dot balls and try to make him play a different shot.“So from then (2001) to now, Test cricket has seen a complete transformation as to how teams approach. If you look at how England play the Tests (Bazball), they are trying to score 500 in a day and in that bid you can also get out for 70 or 80.”  Despite acknowledging the evolution of the format, Harbhajan said he still misses the uncertainty that characterised Test matches in the past.“But I believe the charm of Test cricket was what we played back in the day. The match would go on for five days, and on the fifth day, you won’t know which team would win.”Harbhajan also feels the rise of the Indian Premier League has altered the incentives for young cricketers, with the lucrative T20 tournament offering players a faster route to recognition and financial rewards.He believes it has contributed to a shift in focus away from red-ball cricket.“I believe focus has shifted a bit from red ball to white ball. Reason being that IPL is a huge platform which gets a player limelight and also huge pay cheque. You become an overnight star and before you know, you play for India.“In earlier times, people slogged for even 10 years to play for India. There were a lot of players who scored huge runs like Amol Mujumdar and Amarjeet Kaypee, who couldn’t play for India. Because there was no place in the senior team.”“But now with three formats, you have more opportunity to play for India.”