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The debate around England’s approach, free jazz versus old truisms, is perhaps best embodied by the idea of a giant Steve Waugh head floating over the Vauxhall End, the lines around its Steve Waugh eyes – the “crow’s feet” celebrated by the Grade Cricketer podcast – deepening with every affront to orthodoxy.
In this context Sunday was like an all-day Steve Waugh spa facial, the lines around that vast baggy green-clad super-ego easing and softening with every landmark ticked off in a measured, high‑craft opening partnership between David Warner and Usman Khawaja; the crinkles easing with each nick though an absent second slip, a grimace of a smile starting to spread at every bisecting of the umbrella field.
At times England’s bowling lineup looked like what it is here: a TV pundit, an injured bloke, an injured radio summariser, a dutiful wizard, an ageing red-zoned speed freak and a 41-year-old celebrating his birthday.