#ravichandran-ashwin

#ravichandran-ashwin

Bell insists that time batting against the red ball is still fundamental to the modern player. He emphasizes the value of scoring runs in first-class cricket and how it sets you up, learning how to bat, how to build hundreds, and how to stay out there for multiple sessions.

Rob Key has mentioned it on a couple of occasions, but we've never really got to that position where it's like: OK, what should we do here? If Rob Key called me and said: I want to talk to you properly, then I'll talk to him, definitely. I'm available to have the discussion.

Have you ever accurately predicted what will happen on a cricket pitch before the ball has been bowled? It's an incredible feeling. That moment when you glance at the field, remember who's on strike and think: Here comes the short ball, only for it to arrive, be pulled and then safely pouched by the fielder you had mentally circled at deep square. For a split second you feel omniscient. Like you've cracked the code.

If they come along more regularly even than British general elections to which Brenda produced her timeless reaction in 2017 they at least have more interesting results: the past five have had five different winners and the past three six different finalists. What's more, though not much time has passed since the last one ended with India beating South Africa in Barbados, it seems to have been long enough for the game to shift into a fresh and exhilarating new gear.