Geoffrey Boycott's Blog

Geoff Boycott is proud to be chairman of Yorkshire County Cricket Club in their 150th Anniversary season. To commemorate this landmark year, the club is supporting the publication of Rose-Tinted Summer an inside the dressing room diary of the season written by batsman Joe Sayers.

The publisher is offering the opportunity for advance purchasers to have the name of their choice printed in the back of the book. to find out more visit http://www.gnbooks.co.uk/p/9780957639959-Rose-Tinted-Summer

England’s top three are not in good form and are making it an uphill struggle for bowlers.

This summer England have not made 400 runs once in an innings. That tells you how poor our batting has been and how pathetic Australia’s has been at times to have not beaten us.

England’s bowlers have got them out of jail so many times but it is time we started batting well. You cannot improve on anything unless you are prepared to put your hand up and admit your mistakes. That is the first priority. Our top three batsmen – Alastair Cook, Joe Root and Jonathan Trott – have not been in good form in this series.

I congratulate the efforts of Trott and Cook on Friday, because they are both out of nick and yet they grafted hard for their runs.

Top-class players make hard-working, ugly fifties when not in form, because that helps the side and themselves so credit to them for showing mental tenacity and great character.

But some of the others leave me shaking my head in disbelief. Root is a young kid with enormous talent learning his trade. He likes to stay back to the seam bowlers. There is nothing wrong with that as an opener.

The bowlers are quicker and you do not want to commit yourself forward in case they bowl you a short ball. But when they pitch it up you need to be able to transfer your weight and make a big stride forward to get near the pitch of the ball.

He is getting caught on the crease. He is neither forward nor back. He is in no-man’s-land, which means from when the ball pitches to when he plays it, it has much further to travel. If it moves off the pitch he is a candidate for nicking it to slip or the keeper. The idea is to get as near to the pitch of the ball as you can to reduce the distance it travels and can move.

This was always my concern about him moving from the middle order to opening. When people say, “Hang on, he opens the batting for Yorkshire,” I would argue that he does, but the bowling in international cricket is much better and usually a bit quicker. Therefore it exposes any weaknesses.

For the moment he has lost the immaculate footwork he showed against New Zealand. It is footwork that makes batting. He has regressed. It is liable to happen with young kids. I do not know any 22-year-old who is the finished article.

We all have precocious talent but we have to learn, gain experience and mature. He will be fine, trust me. I am a huge supporter. But the road to the top is not straightforward. I know he made 180 at Lord’s. It was a wonderful innings.

But if he had been caught on eight when the keeper did not move for it, his scores in this series would be 8, 13, 6, 8, 30 and 5. It does not look too clever without the 180.

Kevin Pietersen came out firing. He was probably hot under the collar because of the fuss about Hot Spot. I, too, would have been bloody cross if they had inferred that I was cheating.

But he played the non-spinning off-spinner with half a bat running it to third man. It was naive. You should hit the ball back from whence it came. The angle is around the wicket, wide on the crease so hit it back to mid-on or to the bowler. It is the safest shot in the book.

Then Ian Bell played the worst shot of the whole innings. Here is one of our top batsmen in the form of his life. The team was in trouble. They needed him to stick around in the final session. But what did he do? He had sat on his bum having a cuppa and a cream cake during the tea interval.

But four balls after the interval he tried to smack the off spinner over the top. It was a recipe for disaster. He is probably so confident and full of himself he thought, “I have got runs, I can do anything and I won’t get dropped.”

I am telling you if he had played that shot at Yorkshire in the 1960s when Brian Close was captain he might have got a bunch of fives for it. It was a thoughtless act.

Jonny Bairstow hung on while Australia were strangling the innings, bowling maidens and waiting for the new ball. Having nearly got through that with three overs to the new ball he tried to sweep the off-spinner pitching on middle stump.

To compound it he even reviewed the decision when it was knocking middle stump out of the ground. You have to think better than that at this level. It is not just about talent. It is about using your brain.

We have to start doing better than this. We cannot go on hoping the bowlers will get us out of trouble or the opposition bat poorly. How many times have I said that when you bat well, you control the game?

Our bowlers will win matches, but it should not be an uphill struggle for them all the time to get the batsmen out of a big mess.

Can we win again? We sure can. But a lot depends on our batsmen.

If Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Joe Root and Matt Prior do not find some form and our batting keeps depending on Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen then we may be in for another nail-biting contest with our bowlers having to get us out of jail again.

So far we have been lucky to win the toss three times so that even when we have batted poorly our bowlers have been bowling in the fourth innings on a worn pitch against the Australian batsmen.

Some of those Australian batsmen have technical weaknesses and when the England bowlers squeeze the pressure on them they collapse.

The one time we lost the toss was at Old Trafford and when Australiapiled up a big score our batsmen could not handle the pressure in the same way. If the rain had not arrived I am sure England would have been bowled out cheaply and we would have lost the match.

Batting last has put both sets of batsmen under serious pressure in all four Tests and each time all of them have bottled it.

So unless either group of batsmen improves it will come down to winning the toss and taking advantage of batting first and avoiding having to bat last because it is quite clear both sides have better seam bowlers than batsmen and those bowlers are capable of winning from any position.

Where England have an advantage is in the quality of Graeme Swann over Nathan Lyon. If it spins Swann is a match winner and has a record to prove it.

Lyon is not a big spinner of the ball and does not have the same mixture of flight, variation and dip. But he and his colleagues worked out a way to cause England problems at Durham by bowling around the wicket at off stump with non-spinning balls. This angle seemed to give our right-handers all kinds of difficulties.

Clever field placings with one man on the drive on the on side and one fielder on the long-on boundary, to stop batsmen hitting him over the top, dried up the runs. England got stuck in the crease, not knowing whether to stick or twist.

With no bad balls and the pressure of not scoring, various batsmen committed hara-kiri. Trott was caught at short leg trying to flick a ball off his legs, Pietersen opened the face and tried to run it behind point, Bell came out after tea and tried to hit him inside and out and holed out, Jonny Bairstow tried to sweep off middle stump and was lbw. Australia are going to use the same tactic in this Test match.

England know what is coming. So come on guys, work it out. It is not rocket science and Lyon is not world class. Occasionally use your feet to get to the pitch of the ball and drive it on the floor. Give him something to think about, make it so he is not sure whether the batsman is coming down the pitch or not, and above all do not give him your wickets. Make the Australian seamers take all 10.

To Root I say one swallow does not make a summer. One big century in the second innings at Lord’s, superb as it was, is not convincing us or yourself that you are ready to be an England opener.

We all marvel at your concentration, range of shots and maturity for one so young. But somehow the footwork against the new ball is not there.

You are staying back to the seamers and there is nothing wrong with that. But when the ball is pitched up you have to get that left foot out of the batting crease and near to the pitch of the ball.

Too often you are getting caught on the crease in no-man’s-land. The new ball will always exploit any weakness or lack of technique. It always has done and that is why so many batsmen prefer to bat away from it in the middle order.

Batting is simple. It is about footwork. It is about transferring your weight under pressure in a third of a second against fast bowlers. It has to be so precise otherwise you are out. Play right forward, play right back.

Batting in the middle order you have time to play yourself in against some little spinner or the old ball that does not zip off quite as fast.

You have time. You do not have time when opening. That new ball is on to you like lightning. If you are a fraction out of position you are in trouble.

Joe, you have had eight innings and seven failures. Two more failures on top will not do your confidence any good for the return Ashes. It would leave us all wondering if it was a mistake to move you from middle order to up front so soon. We still believe in you, but show us what you have got.

Come on Joe, get back to your best at the Oval because it will not get any easier on the faster pitches in Australia this winter.

England’s top three are not in good form and are making it an uphill struggle for bowlers.

This summer England have not made 400 runs once in an innings. That tells you how poor our batting has been and how pathetic Australia’s has been at times to have not beaten us.

England’s bowlers have got them out of jail so many times but it is time we started batting well. You cannot improve on anything unless you are prepared to put your hand up and admit your mistakes. That is the first priority. Our top three batsmen – Alastair Cook, Joe Root and Jonathan Trott – have not been in good form in this series.

I congratulate the efforts of Trott and Cook on Friday, because they are both out of nick and yet they grafted hard for their runs.

Top-class players make hard-working, ugly fifties when not in form, because that helps the side and themselves so credit to them for showing mental tenacity and great character.

But some of the others leave me shaking my head in disbelief. Root is a young kid with enormous talent learning his trade. He likes to stay back to the seam bowlers. There is nothing wrong with that as an opener.

The bowlers are quicker and you do not want to commit yourself forward in case they bowl you a short ball. But when they pitch it up you need to be able to transfer your weight and make a big stride forward to get near the pitch of the ball.

He is getting caught on the crease. He is neither forward nor back. He is in no-man’s-land, which means from when the ball pitches to when he plays it, it has much further to travel. If it moves off the pitch he is a candidate for nicking it to slip or the keeper. The idea is to get as near to the pitch of the ball as you can to reduce the distance it travels and can move.

This was always my concern about him moving from the middle order to opening. When people say, “Hang on, he opens the batting for Yorkshire,” I would argue that he does, but the bowling in international cricket is much better and usually a bit quicker. Therefore it exposes any weaknesses.

For the moment he has lost the immaculate footwork he showed against New Zealand. It is footwork that makes batting. He has regressed. It is liable to happen with young kids. I do not know any 22-year-old who is the finished article.

We all have precocious talent but we have to learn, gain experience and mature. He will be fine, trust me. I am a huge supporter. But the road to the top is not straightforward. I know he made 180 at Lord’s. It was a wonderful innings.

But if he had been caught on eight when the keeper did not move for it, his scores in this series would be 8, 13, 6, 8, 30 and 5. It does not look too clever without the 180.

Kevin Pietersen came out firing. He was probably hot under the collar because of the fuss about Hot Spot. I, too, would have been bloody cross if they had inferred that I was cheating.

But he played the non-spinning off-spinner with half a bat running it to third man. It was naive. You should hit the ball back from whence it came. The angle is around the wicket, wide on the crease so hit it back to mid-on or to the bowler. It is the safest shot in the book.

Then Ian Bell played the worst shot of the whole innings. Here is one of our top batsmen in the form of his life. The team was in trouble. They needed him to stick around in the final session. But what did he do? He had sat on his bum having a cuppa and a cream cake during the tea interval.

But four balls after the interval he tried to smack the off spinner over the top. It was a recipe for disaster. He is probably so confident and full of himself he thought, “I have got runs, I can do anything and I won’t get dropped.”

I am telling you if he had played that shot at Yorkshire in the 1960s when Brian Close was captain he might have got a bunch of fives for it. It was a thoughtless act.

Jonny Bairstow hung on while Australia were strangling the innings, bowling maidens and waiting for the new ball. Having nearly got through that with three overs to the new ball he tried to sweep the off-spinner pitching on middle stump.

To compound it he even reviewed the decision when it was knocking middle stump out of the ground. You have to think better than that at this level. It is not just about talent. It is about using your brain.

We have to start doing better than this. We cannot go on hoping the bowlers will get us out of trouble or the opposition bat poorly. How many times have I said that when you bat well, you control the game?

Our bowlers will win matches, but it should not be an uphill struggle for them all the time to get the batsmen out of a big mess.

“England’s top three have got to start scoring – or they should be dropped. They cannot continue being 30-3 or 40-3. What would my top five be? Bell, Pietersen, Bell, Pietersen, Bell. And if I could make sure Prior couldn’t bat – because he hasn’t scored any runs – then I’d put Bell in again.”

“David Warner can play – he is a wonderful player. But he can’t keep going on like he has been – fighting in bars when you are representing your country. Australia need to lock him up for the night. No drinking, no going out, just room service.”

Listen to Geoff on Test Match Special

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra

Do not let anybody tell you this is the best England team of all time just because we have retained the Ashes and denied Australia the urn for the third series on the trot.

We have only played well in patches and some big players have to step up at Durham or Australia will beat us in the fourth Test.

We were lucky Australia played so badly in the first two Tests. Basically, Australia gave us a two-goal start before they turned up in Manchester.

In the first two matches their batting was awful. At Lord’s their batting technique was the worst I have seen from an Australian team in 50 years of playing and commentating on cricket.

But the first time Australia made big runs and put us under pressure we buckled. Without rain yesterday I believe we would have lost.

England have some very good players but Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior are yet to make an impact. It has been left to Ian Bell, James Anderson and Graeme Swann to get us into winning positions. Our batting has not prospered.

We been in trouble a number of times in this series, at 28 for three, 30 for three, 64 for three and 37 for three. We need to address that situation if we are even going to contemplate getting back to No 1 in the world.

We are lucky we have two match-winning bowlers in Anderson and Swann. If one does not bowl the opposition out, the other does. Jimmy did at Trent Bridge and Swann took wickets here but somewhere along the line, those batsmen have got to pull their fingers out. We are not playing our best cricket. It is just that the opposition are not that good.

We are making too many basic errors as a unit. I think it is a mindset problem. They have to look to stay in. Trott is playing shots and getting out. We are always losing the top order without many runs on the board. It is an uphill struggle for others to get them out of jail. It is very difficult to make big totals when you lose early wickets.

Why do we keep saying the new ball is so crucial? Because you have to get through it without losing wickets. It is not about how many runs you score. It is about surviving it with wickets intact. Good sides play the new ball well. Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes. That is what you have to aim for.

Down the order Prior is struggling too. He was voted Player of the Year for his performances. But in seven innings since winning the award, he has averaged 17. His best innings during that time was the 31 he made in the first Test. That will not cut it for much longer. You cannot live on past performances. God help us if Bell and KP get out cheaply.

Bell has been so important, saving us with two hundreds and a 60 in the second innings here. Others have helped him but he has been the glue holding it together.

Kevin Pietersen is our one great player. He played a wonderful innings at Old Trafford. His expansive drive in the second innings when we were trying to save the game was daft. But we just have to accept that because he has that special quality.

Jonny Bairstow needs some big runs. Until he gets a hundred, he is going to have a monkey on his back. Jack Nicklaus won 18 majors but he said the hardest to win was the first one. It is the same with Jonny. He has played 11 Tests intermittently. He has been in and out of the side but when he gets a chance, he needs to make a hundred. People remember the centuries not the pretty thirties, forties or fifties. Centuries win Test matches or put you in the position to win. You can only be a promising player for so long but then you have to deliver the big runs.

Not only certain England batsmen have problems. These three Test matches have been marred by poor umpiring decisions and inconsistencies in technology. Hot Spot does not always pick up nicks, for example, when Pietersen drove away from his body in the second innings here. There was a huge noise on the stump mic, umpire gave him out but there was nothing on Hot Spot.

In Australia’s first innings, Steve Smith hit a similar big drive, and there was a huge noise on the stump mic, but the umpire gave him not out and there was nothing on Hot Spot for the third umpire to change the decision.

You cannot have a system that the players do not trust. It has to be at least 98 per cent accurate. It is supposed to help umpires get more correct decisions but it only confuses everybody, leaving players frustrated and annoyed.

Hawk-Eye is accurate. Players, commentators and the public trust it, but if we keep getting bad decisions from Hot Spot, eventually people will lose confidence in how umpires read technology. Hawk-Eye would be damaged by association, which would be a shame.

If you cannot bat, you cannot win. Until Australia solve their batting problems they have not a cat in hell’s chance of making a game of it against England, never mind winning the Ashes.

 Michael Clarke can talk a good game. The coach, Darren Lehmann, can suggest it will improve. The occasional Australian batsman can play a little cameo but that is totally useless until they occupy the crease, show better technique, patience and improve their shot selection.

Even if they win the toss and bat on a very flat pitch they do not have enough ability or mental resolve to stop the England team. They are going to get steamrollered in the same way Australia used to wallop us. Now the boot is on the other foot.

I always thought their batting was a problem but I never dreamt it would be this bad. Without runs you are never in the game and at times the Australian technique or mental application is no better than Zimbabwe or Bangladesh. It is a mismatch.

Shane Watson is a very talented cricketer but at his age it is a bit late to try to alter the way you play. In 79 innings he has got out 31 per cent of the time lbw. He unfurls some really good shots but plays across the line time and time again. There has been no improvement, no change in the way he plays and that is stupid.

Chris Rogers was brought in at the last moment from playing county cricket for Middlesex. He is a stop-gap opener who is not good enough but tries like hell. I commend his defensive efforts to let the ball come to him. He tries to stay in but has not got enough batting ability. You cannot put there what God did not give you.

Usman Khawaja looks a decent player. He just made a mental error in the first innings by stupidly trying to hit Graeme Swann over the top. In the second innings he learnt his lesson, knuckled down and played really well. He got forward to the turning ball smothering the spin, he had the patience to wait for Swann to bowl too straight and worked him on the on side either off the front foot or pulling him.

Seamers were not a problem to him. Anything slightly short, he put away with an excellent pull shot. What he needs to do is go on from here and play the same way again.

Michael Clarke is the one high-quality player. But so far this series he has not done enough for Australia. He got one magic ball at Trent Bridge, played very well here and is one of the world’s best. But he is batting with people not in the same class as him.

Phillip Hughes amazed me with an excellent 81 not out at Trent Bridge. He watched the ball carefully on to the bat, tightened up his technique from when he played here four years ago but at Lord’s he looked out of his depth. Maybe Trent Bridge was a one-off innings.

Steve Smith looks to me like a player who wants to be aggressive every innings he plays and sometimes it will come off. But he did not seem able to adapt to the situation in the first innings when the ball was turning. He played miles too far in front of his pad, it bounced and he popped it to short leg. In the second innings he played an expansive drive without any foot movement with a stiff left leg. He was miles away from the pitch of the ball. These are elementary mistakes.

The top six in any team has to bat collectively and make the bulk of the team’s runs. You cannot leave it to wicketkeepers and tailenders to lift you out of the mire every time. In fact on Sunday if you were a neutral watching the Australian batsmen and then some of the tailenders bat, you would think the tailenders were better players. Peter Siddle, James Pattinson and Ryan Harris looked more comfortable at the crease. That is ridiculous.

Are we English enjoying it? You bet we are. When Australia were thrashing us they lauded it over us, they were so conceited and bombastic, overbearing and up their own backsides that some of their players trashed England. Guys such as Rod Marsh rubbished us to the point of calling our bowlers “pie chuckers”.

There was some truth in it because we were a shambles but this Australian batting line-up is worse than ours used to be.

In 1994-95 we went Down Under and were insulted when they made our national team play a one-day series against Australia and Australia A. Well now I think our England Lions could beat this lot, or at least give them a run for their money. In some ways many of us England supporters want to see Australia thrashed 5-0 and then go to Australia this winter and beat them 5-0 in their own country. In another way it is not good for cricket with such a traditional contest being so one-sided. It was not interesting when they were beating us and it is not so good now.

I cannot see them batting much better because it is a bit late to be sorting out your technique in the middle of a Test series.

Anybody who put their money on England winning 10-0, which looked fanciful at the time, could be laughing all the way to the bank.

“England are in second gear, they still have to reach third and fourth. Alastair Cook, one of the best batsmen in the world, and Joe Root haven’t posted a big score yet and Kevin Pietersen has only played well in one innings. There’s more to come from England.” Geoffrey Boycott, BBC Test Match Special

England won at Trent Bridge and can win again at Lord’s because there is room for improvement.

England’s only decision is whether Steven Finn should stay or go. The old cricketer’s saying is “never change a wining team”. But people also say “horses for courses”. Every player has grounds where he is successful and others where for no sensible cricket reason he does not perform well.

The fact is Lord’s may save Finn because he has a decent record bowling on his home ground. His replacement is normally Tim Bresnan, but his record at Lord’s is very ordinary.

Personally, I like Graham Onions. He bowls wicket to wicket which does not give the batsmen any angles to play with. So the decision will really come down to Alastair Cook. How does he feel? Does he have confidence in Finn to bowl his full quota of overs? In a four-man attack there is not room for one guy not to do his share. A captain cannot assume that Anderson is going to be a match-winner every time.

Swann can bowl better and usually does well at Lord’s, mainly because there is more pace in the pitch. Batsmen should not be able to stay back to everything whatever the length, like at Nottingham, where the pitch was so slow. He can also use the slope for his slider with a greater chance of getting left-handers out lbw because the ball comes through quicker.

Our batting can improve. Cook is a huge batsman for England. It is obvious the Australian plan at Trent Bridge was to avoid bowling on his legs and not even bowl straight because he works the ball to leg side exceptionally well.

At Trent Bridge they bowled wide of off stump which stopped him scoring, kept him becalmed and got him stuck in a rut. It played on his mind that he could not keep ticking over nicely. The pressure told. Eventually he drove at a wide ball, which he hardly ever does, and was caught behind. That plan is going to happen again.

Matt Prior played an awful shot in the first innings, slashing a wide short ball head-high to cover. He is a very important player for England and we do not want any more of that. He needs to get his head down and show what a quality batsman he is.

Joe Root was well set when he was yorked in the first innings. That should not have happened when he had 30 runs on the board. Early on it is OK but not when you are in. He needs to do better than that. When you get a start in Test match cricket you have to go on and make it count.

I also feel that the Australian seamers might have a problem with the 8ft 8in slope which slants across the square at Lord’s. This means that every pitch slopes about two and three quarter inches. Experienced bowlers always have something to work with but those who have never played at Lord’s – such as Ashton Agar, James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc – can find it difficult to get their direction right.

It is also an unusual challenge for batsmen. When seamers bowl from the Pavilion end a ball can pitch eight inches outside off stump but because of the slope it can come down and be on target drawing you into playing at wide balls. On other grounds you would leave balls pitching that wide of off stump but at Lord’s you have to play them. The plus side is if you get anything straight it is easy to work to leg because you know it will miss leg stump.

Bowlers who can bowl a consistent line and length from the Pavilion end outside off stump are priceless. It is why the metronomic Glenn McGrath had a great record here. When you bowl seamers from the Nursery end you tend to bowl too wide of the stumps because at the point of delivery you are falling over to the off side. You have to readjust your line to compensate. Emotional anticipation and excitement is no substitute for the ability to bowl the ball in good areas. Apart from Peter Siddle, three of their bowlers have played only 22 Tests between them. Look at England’s four bowlers: they have 217 Tests between them.

Now that England have got their heads in front in I will be very disappointed and surprised if they do not go forward and play even better.

The Australians can talk a good game but quite honestly I do not see enough quality. If you are looking at the tourists’ batting order as an England bowler you are not worried. You are targeting only two players: Michael Clarke and Shane Watson.

I am not trying to rubbish them. I respect the Australian courage and character. They are similar to Yorkshiremen, they will fight like hell. But in the end all the talking in  the world, history and tradition does not help when you are out in the middle. It is about who can bat best and who can bowl best. Simple. England should be better in both areas.

The reason England won was because they are more battle hardened than Australia. We have plenty of individuals who can stand up and perform under pressure.

You need batsmen and bowlers who can be mentally strong and do not freeze at the big moments.

England were that team. Australia had their chances and were not good enough to grasp the nettle. They have shown fight and at times the match swung in their favour. When Ashton Agar came to the crease at 117 for nine in the first innings they were 108 behind England and when he got out he had given them a 65-run lead with a breathtaking innings.

The Australian seamers then had England rocking at 131 for four with only a 64-run lead. But they could not find their killer instinct. I fear that is what is going to happen throughout this series.

The Australians will fight and scrap and have a number of opportunities but I do not see enough quality in the overall individuals to beat England, in England, in a series. There are moments in all Tests when either side can grab the initiative and go on to win. But you have to be good enough to take it. I do not think this Australian team are.

England had individuals who took their chances. After England failed in their first innings by making only 215 there was an extra burden on the bowlers and James Anderson delivered his best with five wickets.

In England’s second innings Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell had to change their normal batting tempo. They cut out the expansive shots, were prepared to be patient to stay in and not go looking for the boundaries. They made sure they forced the bowlers to bowl to them and mentally had the experience and class to adapt to the situation.

Bell played his most important innings for England. It set up an England win. Every batsman likes scoring hundreds but they matter more when it wins the match. Centuries on flat batting pitches or when the game is a draw do not mean as much.

Then it is just a nice statistic and you should never judge any cricketer by statistics alone. Bell’s patient, skilful batting was a delight to watch. His composure, judgment of length, sureness of footwork and exquisite timing were a joy to behold.

On the final day with the pressure mounting again Anderson delivered. Without Jimmy, England would not have won, as Graeme Swann was not at his best. He either bowled too straight or too full and he does not have a good record at Trent Bridge. Broad was good but he did not have Jimmy’s penetration or wicket-taking ability.

Steven Finn was so poor that Cook did not have confidence in him. He bowled 10 overs in the second innings, Swann bowled 44 and Anderson 32. That tells you everything. I cannot see Finn keeping his place for Lord’s. If the captain does not have the confidence to bowl you in a four-man attack then you are struggling.

There has been a lot of claptrap about Stuart Broad not walking. Throughout the history of cricket there have been moments like the Broad decision and some defined the attitude between the two teams for the rest of the series.

Even the great Don Bradman was accused by the England players of not walking and Wisden records it as such. In the first Test at Brisbane in 1946 he nicked Bill Voce to Jack Ikin at second slip. He was given not out and made 187.

Walter Hammond, the England captain, made the famous comment to him: “Is that how we are going to play cricket in this series then?” Australia won by an innings and won the series 3-0.

Then there is the Mike Atherton-Allan Donald incident here in 1998. It was as blatant a glove to the wicketkeeper as you will ever see. I played in the second Test at Melbourne in 1965 when Doug Walters was going for his second Test hundred in his second match. The game was petering out for a draw and we were saving the bowlers’ energy so I was bowling. He hit it straight back to me, caught and bowled. He was given not out.

The ‘spirit of cricket’ was Colin Cowdrey’s concept when he was chairman of the International Cricket Council. He prided himself on being a walker. And he was – when he got a century and could return to the dressing room to great applause.

The test of walking is when you have single figures and you touch it. Can you go when you are a failure? I have seen human nature at work. Most fail the moral test, Cowdrey included.

So no more rubbish about walking. The only way is for nobody to walk. Leave it to the umpires. The laws of the game say “in the umpire’s opinion”. The only reason most of us turn and go without waiting for the umpire’s decision when we nick it to slip is because it is so obvious it would be embarrassing to stand our ground. Broad was not embarrassed. Good luck to him.

The final word. Richie Benaud is regarded as a great cricketer, great captain and iconic commentator. He did the first reading of the Cowdrey Lecture. He said: “Australians never walk. They are taught not to walk.” That sums it up.