Gone are the days when you’d reel off the names, one to seven, like listing the continents. With less known about this version of the batting card, studying the list of hopefuls jostling to make the cut had become a national fixation.
One Australian newspaper was even running a daily ranking table for all the likely candidates, logging not only their state scores but district runs too.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the very soul of Test match batting is on the line. Run rates are climbing in Test cricket.
Since England’s first game under Brendon McCullum, the average runs-per-over ...
