On the morning of the third day at Lord’s, after the 35.2 overs of carnage we had witnessed the day before, I cast my mind back to my playing days. What, I wondered, would have been the outcome two decades ago, if today’s players had been transported back in time? Would there have been the same level of damage, ten wickets falling in virtually a single session?

The answer depended not on a calculation of whether the game has improved or regressed, or even changed in nature; not on whether bowlers such as James Anderson are more skilful now, nor whether batsmen’s techniques are less able to withstand them but on the conditions that allowed so much cricket to be played.

Ultimately, that — as