The Surfer

Test and first-class play can certainly make a cricketer more skilful at T20. But think about Kieron Pollard, yet to play a Test match, but who is a T20 drawing card and match-winner everywhere. Australian David Warner made his way into Australia's Test team, not as a result of his runs in first-class cricket, but because of his play as a T20 opener. Consistent Andre Fletcher caught the eye in this CPL. But will he ever be a genuine Test opener? Will Johnson Charles? Will it matter when they could have regular work in the CPL and elsewhere?

Since the introduction of the DRS, umpires have lost control of their destiny and much of their self-respect. Umpires will leave the game if they continue to be humiliated by a flawed system. I wouldn't want to stand in the middle for six hours a day for five days just to count the number of balls and to refer decisions to the Third Umpire.

To Root I say one swallow does not make a summer. One big century in the second innings at Lord's, superb as it was, is not convincing us or yourself that you are ready to be an England opener. We all marvel at your concentration, range of shots and maturity for one so young. But somehow the footwork against the new ball is not there. You are staying back to the seamers and there is nothing wrong with that. But when the ball is pitched up you have to get that left foot out of the batting crease and near to the pitch of the ball. Too often you are getting caught on the crease in no-man's-land. The new ball will always exploit any weakness or lack of technique. It always has done and that is why so many batsmen prefer to bat away from it in the middle order. Batting is simple. It is about footwork. It is about transferring your weight under pressure in a third of a second against fast bowlers. It has to be so precise otherwise you are out. Play right forward, play right back. Batting in the middle order you have time to play yourself in against some little spinner or the old ball that does not zip off quite as fast.

There are probably three main factors that contribute to the high risk of these injuries in young fast bowlers: age, technique and workload. History tells us that bowlers under the age of 24 are at increased risk of developing lumbar stress fractures, presumably because their bones have not fully matured and lack the necessary strength to withstand the high loads imparted on them by bowling at 140km/h. Over the past 50 years, a long line of young Australian fast bowlers have broken down, from Dennis Lillee and Bruce Reid to the present group. Only Craig McDermott in that period has been able to play at a young age at Test level without injury.

Chandigarh's Sector 16 coaching centre, where Azad honed the skills of young, impressionable boys, was the centre of his life, an abode where his writ ran. He was, in the tradition of Indian gurus, a man whose word was law and no one dared defy his instructions.

Now as he walks to the crease he is a source of reassurance. He has shared vital partnerships with Pietersen, in which their contrasting methods have been highly complementary - "he cuts, I pull; he flicks it; I drive it" - but it is Bell who has suggested the greater permanence and who has produced more runs. The opposite was the case when they started their Ashes careers together back in 2005. The brash Pietersen revelled in the atmosphere straightaway; Bell was not so sure. In five Tests in 2005 he scored 171 runs and 124 of those came in two innings at Old Trafford. The Australians patronised him, calling him the "Sherminator". Adam Gilchrist behind the stumps talked through him to the bowler at the other end, "Jeez, Shane, I've never seen anyone try to play you like this before", and Bell felt pretty small.

He would also know that Rex Sellers, a British passport-holding, Indian-born leg-spinner who played Test cricket for Australia prompted no small measure of angst within the English cricketing press when chosen in the Australian Ashes squad of 1964. In response, the cricket-loving prime minister Robert Menzies fast-tracked Sellers's citizenship at a rate that, all these years later, makes Fawad Ahmed's blessing from the Gillard government look like a glacial drift

... When Ponting returned to Australia for the birth of his daughter, Shaun Marsh stepped in at first drop for the second Test, and promptly made a debut century. When Ponting rejoined for the third Test, it was down the order a notch. He would never make another run at No. 3. Seemingly, Marsh had opened a door, but it was to an abyss. In two years and 26 Tests since, eight men have appeared at No. 3, collectively averaging a meagre 22. Not one has made a century. But they have made nine ducks, including three in one series for Marsh, and one for Clarke, in his only captain's innings at No. 3.

No. 3 remains a black hole. In this series, it was occupied in the first Test by Ed Cowan, and since by Usman Khawaja. Apart from Khawaja's 54 on the last day at Lord's, in a cause already long lost, the highest score is 24. The ill-starred Khawaja looks to be playing himself out of the team again, though now that the Titanic is fatally holed, there is no point in shuffling the deck chairs again at the Oval. Khawaja, now sans lifejacket, must sink or swim.