To add to that, the India team of the 2000s would have been even more successful if Laxman had been number 3 instead of Dravid. Think of any Test team that has built a consistent winning legacy — they had someone like Viv Richards or Ponting at 3.

It’s absolutely important for number 3 to be a naturally aggressive player.

The problem is when he fails, because of the slow rate at which he scores and the amount of balls he takes to get there, it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the team to be unnecessarily aggressive and throw their wickets away.

I wouldn’t mind Pujara getting more 30s and 40s at a decent rate if it means moving the game forward and taking pressure off others. Especially against good attacks.

That’s such a coincidence, Sam. I was just watching a newsreel in which the interviewees were saying that one day merges into the next etc.

https://youtu.be/lIxPJWwtWnE

Is it infectious?

I don’t even know what day it is anymore.

Thursday morning, isn’t it? In that case it’s shaping up to be tomorrow’s Ridiculous Ashes Podcast piece. We should maybe try and address that but not sure we’ll have time.

“If you’re wondering why Pujara keeps getting these unplayable deliveries, it is because he doesn’t get out to lesser balls”

I would imagine that a bowler does get psyched up with the prospect of getting a Kohli/Pujara/insert-good-batsman-here wicket and they do bowl that effort ball (or even an effort over) which they otherwise might not have bowled.

The Indians have been complaining about racist comments from the (convict) crowd. Are they not part owners of the line? Of so how do they think that it is, as Ponting would say, “you see its just not acceptable, how they think they can get away with it, I don’t know.”?

Maybe the time has come for someone else to take ownership of ‘the line’. I think we will let the convicts keep their ownership of ‘tape with some granules from the surface of the pitch’ boundary/rule.

I do hope the hooligans don’t march on Lord’s Wednesday. Daisy and I are doing our FoodCycle charity food drops around the Marylebone area that afternoon.

We don’t want to be held up in the mayhem, nor do we want the cops going through Dumbo’s copious rear when he’s stacked to the gills with suspicious-looking food parcels.

Can’t the yobbos descend on the MCG instead?

Someone must have scuffed “the line” a bit so it was hard to tell which side of it you were on.

Or maybe it was worn away a bit with some sort of abrasive paper.