All we can say is that it’s possible to develop these skills over time. Tomorrow is a new day.

The mood might not be quite the same, but if you can practise getting you a Double Decker and eating it in your mouth – perfecting that art – then maybe next time that Blue Savannah precipitated perfect storm comes about, you’ll be in a position to properly exploit it.

I swung into the newsagents and the woman behind the counter said, ‘We’re closing now love, grab what you want quickly.’

And then, well I fell apart. Facing the rack of chocolate, the almost boundless choice, with the lady behind the counter tapping her fingers impatiently on the counter, King Cricket, I panicked. My eyes began to sweat, Bryan Adams’s ‘Run to You’ started blasting in my head (I have no idea why, the last time I’d heard it was a family holiday in Scarborough in 92) and I moved forward and my hand reached out and seemingly without my consent selected a bar of chocolate.

I walked home with my head hanging, my cheeks burning red in embarrassment and frustration, my legs sombre and weak beneath me. In my pocket shamefully rested a Toffee Crisp. A Toffee Crisp.

Graeme Hick?

Nicholas Verity Knight had an excellent ODI record: average over 40, the strike rate of 71.5 wasn’t bad for the time, almost a carbon copy of Thorpe’s 71.2. First class average of 44, with a triple century to his name. But in Tests, a Bevanesque average below 24.

My favourite thing about Michael Gwyl Bevan’s test career isn’t that such a brilliant batsman could average a measly 29, or even his excellent middle name, but that he bowled chinamen well enough to snag 29 wickets at 24, including a (match) ten-fer. If batting average > bowling average, you’re technically an “all-rounder”, right?

Michael Bevan springs to mind, that sort of thing.

I think what you’re talking about is ‘System 1’ vs ‘System 2’ thinking, to use Daniel Kahneman’s terminology. Not sure if he ever did any analysis of batting collapses, though.

There is some experimental evidence that your brain makes most decisions for you, and then lets your consciousness be aware of it a few seconds later, with the added twist that your consciousness is allowed to think it was in charge. In any case, actively attempting to let your conscious mind make split-second decisions is guaranteed to mess things up.

We could see this with the Australians this summer. With brains telling them to drive everything pitched up, because that usually works fine for them, they were completely unable to leave these most dangerous of deliveries in wobbly conditions. Ergo, sixty all out, not because they were rubbish, but because they weren’t playing the game their brains were used to.

It is possible for a player to have two natural games, and to be able to switch between them. But this again has to be a natural switch, not a forced one. It is also the mark of a true great of the game – Ponting, Dravid, Lara. If we’re casually expecting the same from Buttler, we are asking rather a lot.

It is no surprise therefore that Buttler can thrive under Morgan’s captaincy – another player who unquestionably gets the short form format and struggles (for no apparent reason) to get the longer form of the game.

The decision to promote Buttler up the order in the last match, in the light of the superb platform built by the top order, was high class. Probably not Morgan alone but very much the sort of decision I understand emerging from the Morgan/Bayliss/Farbrace mentality and I applaud it wholeheartedly. It was a good idea, even if it hadn’t come off. As it did come off, it was a brilliant, masterful idea.

I also think Jos Buttler was basically out of form for the tests and has found his way back into form during the ODI series. Even the best players do go in and out of form. That is a dull observation but is also part of the explanation, regardless of the other more interesting factors.