There are questions that seem to pop up annually when Test cricket fills our screens, airwaves and national consciousness.
Why can’t modern players bowl 90 overs in a day?
How big does the sightscreen need to be for Steve Smith to not be distracted?
What is Marnus Labuschagne going on about under the helmet at bat pad?
But one of the most crucial, existential ones is this: Is the end in sight for Test cricket and, if it’s not, what can be done to arrest its slide to irrelevance?
Despite a tense and thrilling series against an underrated Pakistan side, the issue came to a head again when the make-up of the South African and West Indian teams for their January tours was revealed.
The 15-man West Indies squad includes seven uncapped players for the two-Test tour of Australia.
The Proteas, meanwhile, have named a threadbare squad, featuring seven uncapped players of their own for their tour of New Zealand, which again is only two Tests long and will be captained by a 27-year-old debutant, Neil Brand.
The relative lack of strength of the two sides is painfully obvious when you look at the experience each has under their belts.
The 15 tourists from the Caribbean have played a combined 235 Test matches — just a handful more than the 230 Tests that Steve Smith and Nathan Lyon have managed.
The 14 South Africans? Their experience amounts to just 51 Tests — which is just shy of the 52 Tests that New Zealand quick Tim Southee has played on home soil on his own.
Just two of the touring party have played Test cricket in the past year — although as we’ll see, that’s not a surprise given the paltry number of Tests the Proteas have lined up in.
By contrast, Australia’s 13-man squad for the last two Pakistan Tests had a total of 811 caps.
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