Other Interntional cricket.

A bit too bowler friendly, but better than the other. I was at Newlands when Stokes got a double century and Bairstow his maiden one, same innings. It was fun for a while, but then Amla and others did the same, and it ended a million-all bore draw.

BBC Cricket have picked their Test Team of 2023 + four reserves.

There are five in the XI who have played for Yorkshire: Karunaratne, Root, Williamson, Bairstow and Starc.
[Also: Khawaja, Kohli, Stokes, Jadeja, Cummins, Broad.]

Of the four reserves, two have played for Yorkshire, Brook and Head, one signed for Yorkshire but never played, I think, Ashwin. [The other was Nathan Lyon.]

Commentators suggested Afridi rested himself, refused to play. Shan Masood looks by far the best of the Pak top order. I like Rizwan, can't believe they preferred fat Sarfaraz in the 1st Test. Saud Shakeel doing about as well as I thought he would.

I didn't see the Markram's innings but his numbers are amazing in the context of game.

After two very one-sided games the series is drawn, I've never been keen on two match series.

AS Warner bows out, another potentially great opener takes the stage. It would be hard to imagine any rookie batting better than did little left-hander Saim Ayub today. If Pakistan play a decent amount of Test cricket over the next ten years, he will make thousands of runs, and make them gloriously.

The only annoyance today - and it was a big one - was the ridiculous amount of time lost. The worst was Smith, seeing a tiny roll of tape, which had fallen from the crowd onto the fabric surrounds to the sight screen. It was smaller than a golf ball, and not in line, a little black speck in an ocean of whiteness, but Smith complained and, instead of the umpires telling him to get stuffed, we had a ten-minute delay.

Then we had Starc complaining about the footholds, with a groundsman being summoned, more than once, to smash down a perceived lump with a big hammer.

What happens if the opposition want five to win, with the light hovering round the coming-off level? "I can't stand up, umpire! Honest. I'm going over on my ankle." It's time for a return to the back foot no ball rule, and all these big holes would disappear, overnight.

GET ON WITH THE GAME!

I wonder about Australia's reserve strength in batting. Smith might have replaced Warner as opener, but now someone has to replace Smith. I don't follow their domestic game closely enough to know who the contenders might be, apart from the usual old suspects. They must have someone in mind, to make the decision they have.

Not that it's going to matter, against their next opposition.

Not far into the future they are going to need some bowlers, too, to replace the brilliant quartet they have now.

Would they do that? It would give them a five-man pace attack, plus the increasingly toothless Lyon. Perhaps Marsh's reinvention as a batting all-rounder allows him to be regarded as a batsman, pure and simple. Perhaps he actually is a better bat than any of the alternatives. Good enough to bat at 5?

Is Carey's position secure? To me, he is a distinctly 'average' performer (at that level, of course) with bat and gloves. Rizwan was probably the only Pakistani who would have made the Combined XI from the recent series.

Pretty sure it will be Renshaw and Boland omitted but interesting that Renshaw is in the squad when its already known that Smith is going to open the batting.

Carey must be under pressure from Inglis, who is in the white ball team, is a very tidy keeper and a competent batter.

The thought of Inglis, Renshaw and Khawaja all in the same Aussie test team must give us Poms a chance to have a pop, just as the Aussies liked to have a go at our side in the 80s when we had players like Mccague, Mullally who grew up in Australia but then played for England.