Soon the two teams will resume battle on another continent. Playing away is a greater challenge and Australia will have to show they are up to it. It is a wonderful concept we must have more of. After six Test matches, with each side having encountered home and away conditions, we will know which is the better team. It seems a fair and challenging way of going about things; a welcome change from the two-Test nonsense some have to endure.

Thereafter we in India will be in the grip of T20 cricket with first the IPL and then the rest of the world joining in for the World championship. It will be great fun but it will not demand of its warriors the challenges that Test cricket does; fast bowlers bowling as many overs as they like on a fifth day pitch against tail enders. And there will be no glory in blocking. It will demand different skills, different qualities and will produce different drama but it would be folly to compare the two forms. We must have both.