Mark Footitt’s not been getting Notts games, let alone Lions games. Knackered neck, I think.

Ohhhhh, we see what you were doing there. Top work.

Would you say he’s been first among equals in the BBL, Mike? He’s flown under the radar a bit for me, is he England’s best kept secret? Although he’s attracted a lot of attention from the fourth estate recently, he might be one of the twelve red herrings that usually accompany any discussion about county players who could make the jump up to the Test team.

He’s sure to earn a decent amount in the IPL though, I’d guess at £200k, not a penny more, not a penny less.

I’ll stop now in case anyone thinks I’ve actually read any of those books.

It was initially reported as dehydration , which I guess is technically correct. My mates speculated that our old club captain had somehow been employed by English cricket to manage their hydration – the man was notorious for berating players if they took even a sip of water outside the scheduled drinks break in 40c weather.

Excellent – I’d always wondered what Prince Prefab might look like.

I had a mental imagining of the look. Frankly, the diagrammatic rendering is eerily similar to my imagining.

Now I learn that the diagram is an accurate likeness.

That goes beyond eerie…that’s seriously spooky in my book.

It now almost feels like I know you, PP.

Shit.

There’s one right there.

There, in the comments. January 9, 2018.

It was actually commentbait.

That might help, but they’ll still struggle overall in SA and England. I doubt they’ll make 400 once in the next 7 tests.

Rahul was the only one in the top 6 who wasn’t in the team that toured England in 2014. It’s not like they have played a lot more in seaming conditions since then. That series ended with 5 consecutive innings below 200. Do you think they’ll fare any better against Anderson than they did against Philander?

Even the bowling line-up is more or less the same as the one from 2014 (Bumrah for Ishant, which may not last). Cook will be looking forward to facing them. As much as it hurts to say this, England’s matches against Pakistan will probably be more challenging than India in the coming summer.

India are brilliant in home conditions, but will struggle to get a positive result in SA or England. Sometime between the 2nd and 3rd test by which time they would have spent almost two months on the road, they will give up on any pretence of competing.