England v Humility

CP on the trophy formerly known as Pataudi

EtAlers, please make welcome our friend Cameron Ponsonby, who’ll be covering the England v India series - ahem, the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy - for us. First Test starts Friday. It’s going to be 30 degrees! There may be Bazball!! Get ready for….the Ashes?

Well, it’s here. We’ve made it. After three years of play-pretend cricket and being ‘where our feet are’, England can finally look forward to some cricket that matters in the here and now. Because India, big old India, are in town.

“Really,” explained Graeme Swann in a Sky Sports interview previewing the series, “It’s the perfect warm-up for the Ashes.”

Sake.

The English cricket cycle. Four years of high-knees and hip rotations, all to be three-nil down by the time they get to Melbourne. Say what you want about England, but no-one is as limber in their losses or as dexterous in their defeats.