The Surfer

But refute it the Australian selectors did. For you see, the young batsman occupied an extreme end of the physical spectrum for a professional batsman and that extreme in physical size, combined with his bush upbringing, produced in him a heterodox batting technique that some on the Australian selection panel doubted could withstand the rigours of international cricket, causing them to consistently overlook him in favour of batsmen of inferior performance. Even when they gave him a run in the Australia XI, it was never an extended one - he was always the first to be dropped, while the batsmen of inferior performance were given opportunities of greater quality.

Mind you, in those good old days, school cricket was mostly a 40-over game, punctuated by drinks and lunch breaks, stretching from 10 am till 4.30 pm. Yet it lacked the hurly-burly of the abbreviated forms of the game, much in vogue now. It wasn't the duration but the philosophy of playing which inspired the young to imagine their cricket in the mould of Test cricket, or the long-form version.

Right now, Virat Kohli could probably do with a drink and a chat with someone who's been where he is now. The recurring theme when you speak to the greats of the game is that fallow runs and troughs usually coincide with the joy being sucked out of the game. When it becomes a chore, you need to step back and try to see things differently. It's no secret that the three prolific years Rahul Dravid enjoyed at the end of his career - he made 10 of his 36 centuries then - had much to do with taking a more relaxed approach.

Yes in terms of left-handers, for me it was always pleasant when people said that there was elegance and style but then none of that works unless you get runs and spend 10 to 15 years playing Test cricket. For me to walk out to bat at Lord's, the Oval, the Eden Gardens, the SCG, wherever it might be, I am not thinking hope this looks good, I am thinking hope I get some runs.

Captaincy is the art of balancing attack and defence. In the field, usually up against it, Dhoni has been determined to keep attacking fields, even when England were miles ahead. I wonder if anyone has calculated how many runs England scored to third man at the Kia Oval; while England's total raced on, India retained three or four slips.

It is unclear whether the CPL is proving to be a financial success or not but there is no doubt that its longevity is safer than the T20 leagues in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Without doubt it would have been watched by two or three times more viewers outside the West Indies this year than in the first edition. The standard of cricket may be behind that of the Australian Big Bash and is probably no better than South Africa's Ram Slam competition but it is more advanced in its commercial product than the Ram Slam, despite its time-zone disadvantage.

To win a Test and still feel like having been part of a whitewash must be a cruel feeling. Like losing a Test under three days and still being fined for slow over-rate. Oh the cruel irony of it all. And it only worsens as even the past also gets tarnished by the present. This team did perform decently in seaming conditions of South Africa and New Zealand but as it's been said, what would have happened if those were also five-match series?

In the minutes after the humbling defeat to India at Lord's, waiting for the post-match interviews to see if Alastair Cook would announce his decision to surrender the captaincy - as so many were demanding at the time - news broke that England's captain had retired from all internationals with immediate effect. It seems an odd moment for Steven Gerrard to have chosen.

There are 11 Australians in that list, eight Englishmen, four each from the West Indies and India, two South Africans and one each from Sri Lanka and New Zealand. It is a list in which every major Test-playing country has long had a representative. That Pakistan has only now produced a representative is mostly an indictment of the casualness with which it has treated fielding institutionally.

So here was a swift and jubilant end to a strange summer of Test cricket in which the post-Ashes angst was suddenly swept away by three massive victories. As well as joy this brings puzzlement - not just about the true worth of this new England team. In the brave new world of the Big Three India were one of the parties expected to maintain and enhance the status of Test cricket. With performances like these their players are doing the opposite.