They were among the hardest to watch, certainly, but that was maybe less to do with the aesthetics and more to do with the inaction.

Indeed. That was the “J P Duminy is going to be the next big thing” test. Whatever happened to that proposition?

Thinking overnight about the crabby looking England players of the mid-1970s and their effectiveness – the big issue for that lot was the different conditions around the world. Their style suited dibbly-dobbly bowling in English conditions, but they all fell short against Sarfraz’s swing and/or the raw pace of the Aussie and West Indian attacks, especially on hard fast antipodean tracks etc.

Sibley’s ton at Newlands is a good sign in that department, but he still has a lot to prove, as does Rory Burns, who looks, in style terms, exactly the sort of crabby player who might thrive until the hardness of the pitches and the pace of the bowlers goes up a couple of notches. We’ll see over the next couple of years and and it’ll be interesting viewing.

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/11812/scorecard/648675/south-africa-vs-australia-2nd-test-australia-tour-of-south-africa-2013-14

http://ianlouisharris.com/1974/09/03/back-when-i-didnt-know-my-asif-from-my-sarfraz-cricket-on-tooting-bec-common-summer-1974/

In my mind, Edrich (John) & Lloyd (David) were probably the pinnacle. Pretty sure they opened the batting together on occasion, although Edrich preferred to be crabby at three.

As an example of the worst excesses of this, I give you the first test between England and Pakistan in 1974. Openers Dennis Amiss and David Lloyd, followed by John Edrich, then Mike “Slime” Denness, then Keith Fletcher. That must be the crabbiest top five anywhere ever.

No wonder my batting doesn’t look pretty; weaned on that.

He’s already overtaken Bell in terms of Test wickets, if at some point over the summer he makes a century when Burns and Sibley have both already done so, it could be time for another campaign….

Denly’s whipped out the bowling so that he can stay ahead of Zak Crawley without renouncing batting mediocrity.

(PS I clearly meant Shiv in ODIs, not Tests, I definitely didn’t assume he’d opened in Tests and then retrospectively check it on Statsguru)