There is nothing like the drama of Test cricket – even when it isn’t going the way you want

There is a famous Donald Bradman quote when the Australian cricketing legend was asked about what it was like to play against England.

“When you play Test cricket, you don’t give the Englishmen an inch,” he said. “Play it tough, all the way. Grind them into the dust.”

It is tempting, then, to wonder what the great man would have made of this weekend and the second Test between India and his old foe in Chennai. I think it’s fair to say he would have liked it. A lot.

England have been well and truly worn down into the MA Chidambaram Stadium dirt, with Virat Kohli’s hosts the better team in every facet of the game on the way to what will be the most one-sided of Test match victories.

With the bat, Rohit Sharma showed the attacking intent all the best modern players possess to pile on the runs; then Ravichandran Ashwin with the ball twirled and whirled his way through the tourists’ top order with ease before a batting cameo of his own.

It will, barring a miraculous turnaround, end in a heavy, heavy defeat for England. Depending on when you read this it may already have.

It all seems a long way from just a few short days ago when it was England who were revelling in a dominant performance. Joe Root was basking in a majestic double hundred and his side were excelling in all phases to take a deserved 1-0 lead in this four-match Test series.

That of course is the beauty of sport, any sport, but is truly the thrill of a cricket tour away from home in the Asian subcontinent.

These are the days and matches you fear when you travel to India, where you feel like your very soul as a player – and a spectator – is ripped away from you by sheer brilliance in the most challenging of conditions.

It is now up to England to bounce back, to show what they are really made of. It’s time for them to prove that that famous first Test win won’t simply end up being a footnote in another painful overseas series defeat.

It won’t be easy, it never is. But those ups and downs, twists and turns, that joy and despair, are what make sport so wonderful to enjoy, whether playing, watching or writing about it. Even as a long-suffering England cricket fan, bring on more of the same please.

Yours,

Ben Burrows

Sports editor