The Surfer

If performance for the national team in Tests or one-day internationals is the basis, then one is left wondering why Mumbai’s Rohit Sharma figures in Grade B. He has not been capped in Test cricket so far. In the previous contractual period Sharma played against England, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and West Indies and he scored 152 runs in 11 innings in which he remained not out five times. His scores were 11 not out, 3, 28, 8 not out (against England), 25 not out, 4 not out, 15 (against Sri Lanka), did not bat and 43 against New Zealand and 4, 0, 11 and 1 against the West Indies.

Trott represented South Africa in the under-15 and under-19 World Cups before moving to England with his family at the age of 21. He believed county cricket would better enhance his game than a South African system hamstrung by quotas designed to wrest the game from white control. Equally, he might just have been exercising Plan B because Plan A had stalled.

If Vettori can maintain his batting form and Brendon McCullum can continue to develop his Test game, then seven is as far south as either of these two need venture. Vettori seems to believe that if three seamers and himself can't get the job done, then an extra seamer won't either. But right now eight batsmen are not exactly getting the run-scoring job done either, as per the second innings collapse.

There are severe deficiencies, particularly in the batting. Can Daniel Flynn make it as a No3, averaging 21.50 in the position since his promising start of 95 against the West Indies a year ago? Will New Zealand be able to return to an era where Flynn doesn't have to think about striding out to bat when the ball is still brand new - having only touched the pitch, the stumps or the edge of a bat and a member of the slip cordon's hands - due to a lapse in an opener's concentration?

One such area is what happens to the first ball of an over in 50-over cricket. Anecdotal evidence had suggested that batsmen in other countries targeted the first ball, so as to demoralise the bowler and make him think about clawing back his economy-rate instead of taking wickets.

Trott does seem likable and adept and – again, jarringly – not in any sense embarrassing. The problem rests with the notion that England have to pick him because he's the best available player. This is a basic misunderstanding of what international cricket is about. International cricket isn't about winning. It's about the occasionally upsetting tectonic collision of regimes, a cold war of talent-buffing schools and development empires. If Trott wasn't around we might be watching Ian Bell flinch his way to a disappointing 37 so fluently contradictory in its elegant stodginess, so swaggeringly meek, that it makes you want to jab yourself in the eye with a steel kebab skewer.

Five years ago, when Australia decided it was time to reduce Test series against West Indies from five matches to three, some stalwarts were offended. To them, playing only three Tests against the Windies was like inviting Jamie Oliver over to cook dinner and asking him to prepare the entree only. It seemed demeaning. A waste. Almost a tease. Not any more.

They break for lunch when Ma announces tea,

By the look of things, Murali is no longer able to impart as much spin. Placid pitches in Ahmedabad and Kanpur have not helped, but in his prime he could make batsmen struggle on shirtfronts. Admittedly the batting has been superb but the contest has been one-sided.

North is a shamelessly old-fashioned player who has quickly built a reputation for being robust under pressure at Test level. For much of his career he has greatly admired Steve Waugh and Justin Langer and his fighting spirit is cut from the same cloth as those Test warriors. As a youngster he got his father to drive him to club grounds in Perth where Mike Hussey was batting to view the player who at the time was making massive scores in local cricket.

Unfortunately, for much of the time, he was held out by some very heavyweight cricketers. And more recently, by Symonds, a cricketer who promised a lot but delivered less. North is playing his eighth Test at the Gabba this weekend, Symonds played 24. North has scored three centuries for his country. Symonds scored two. Somewhere, someone, must be asking why they bothered with all the drama and histrionics.

It is terribly cruel that Hughes is remembered as much for crying as for his exhilarating batting. On song he had few peers. This scribe has always wondered why one wouldn't cry if circumstances compelled the surrendering of the most significant office in Australian sport. It seemed then and seems now a very human response.