It has been 140 years since Test cricket has been plagued by so many early finishes, but Australian captain Pat Cummins doesn’t want this helter-skelter era to prompt a change towards four-day Tests.

Saturday’s heavy rain at the Gabba looms as the best chance of sending a match to five days this summer, after two rapid-fire Tests to start the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.

Day one in Perth brought 17 wickets as the match hurried to a day-four finish, before a 14-wicket second day in Adelaide meant that game was completed by the first session on day three.

Rain aside, the Gabba has traditionally been a faster-moving venue in recent years, with only one of the past four Tests there going into the second half of day four.

Alarmingly for the sport’s bean counters, who forgo significant revenue when Tests don’t go the distance, the trend is nothing new.

In the past 3½ summers, only four Tests in Australia have reached the final day, with two of those rain-affected.

Data also shows a recent decrease in the number of overs per Test in Australia across the past decade, while the past two summers have had the least balls bowled per Test since 1887-88.

AAP