The longest summer of Test cricket I can remember.
And the most days' play probably! With super drainage, floodlights and flexible start/finish times it makes it all the more worthwhile for crowds and listeners to the fantastic coverage on TMS. Daggers, Isa Guha, Dan Norcroft are gliding into their new roles with great aplomb
I'm thinking that the appointments of Ed Smith and James Taylor as selectors is a long-needed freshening-up behind the scenes - not that they've come up with a solution for the top 3 batters yet!
Moeen is such an adaptable cricketer that he might "just" learn to be a number 3 - it's lateral thinking, not the first choice perhaps, but he's definitely useful and it allows Root to return to his favoured no. 4 position. So pleased that Buttler is worked into the side too.
Glad for Cooky that his swansong was so successful as surely the writing was on the wall as so many bowlers had found his weak spots as analyst Simon Hughes pointed out.
Awed at Jimmy Anderson for astonishing fitness to bowl more balls in Test match cricket than Alastair Cook had faced as a batsman. Roll on the 600!
A great summer with a bank of exciting players for the next round....looks like Belly will miss out after all