Unless you started in the middle, you’ve read the whole headline which is more than many online commenters.

Okay, I didn’t read the article (yet) but hell, that’s no reason not to contribute to the discussion.

Also not really stated – but perhaps should have been as it’s at the heart of what we’re saying – but top players’ talents and weaknesses are in a constant state of flux.

To stick with Jason Roy, that first-class experience may have supported his short format form for a year or so but maybe now the well is running a bit dry. The type of practice that would improve his game now is perhaps very different from what he’d have needed 18 months ago.

A really big point about this is implied but not stated in your article: every top-level player brings a unique blend of talents and weaknesses to the game. There is no “one size fits all” formula for recovery of form or development of compensating skills to help overcome weaknesses.

As you say, that can lead to possible solutions as varied as “practice lots to improve”, “try other vaguely related activities in search of compensating strengths/skills” or even “take a break from it and let your brain/body recover”…and much in between/besides.

With batting, an additional challenge comes from the fact that almost all practice situations are so very different from time in the middle in an actual match that matters. And of course the big thing about batting in a match is that one mistake ends your batting time in the middle. It’s different for bowlers precisely because of the weird, compelling asymmetry of this game we love.

Oh we can only handle praise when it’s faint. Thanks.

We baulked at ‘profound’ but were reassured when you qualified it with ‘on this site’.

To give some examples: whilst it’s pretty clear that Ben Stokes or Jonny Bairstow probably wouldn’t be the sort of Test batters they are now if they’d only ever played ‘red ball’ cricket (and England wouldn’t be the sort of Test team they are at the moment without the overlap with the 50-over team), it could equally be true that without building up experience in First Class cricket, Liam Livingstone wouldn’t be as an accomplished a T20/Hundred/ODI batter. And that’s to say nothing of players who have found a niche later in their career that wouldn’t have been available to them if they hadn’t ‘kept their hand in’ in multiple formats.