Was cricket’s best performance last week England’s third Test win in South Africa, or India winning both of their super overs in their T20 series in New Zealand? Or Zimbabwe dictating terms throughout their drawn second Test against Sri Lanka?

Zimbabwe’s two-Test series against Sri Lanka was the first Test cricket they have played since November 2018. Difficult to be at your best for a Test when more than a year has passed without one.

Test cricket in Zimbabwe has been left to die, but it refuses to go under. They have been excluded from the World Test Championship, alone among the 10 senior Test-playing countries, yet in their last series abroad they drew 1-1 in Bangladesh. England fared no better there last time.

Last week Zimbabwe were good enough to score over 400 against Sri Lanka in Harare and take a big first-innings lead, which forced Sri Lanka to bat out the last day carefully to secure a draw. Irony of ironies in a country beset with drought, Zimbabwe might have won but for time lost to bad light and rain.

Nobody seems to care about cricket in Zimbabwe any more. Certainly not England. The only time the two countries have played each other since 2004, in any format, was in the 2007 World T20 finals in South Africa when they were drawn in the same pool. Otherwise, for the last 16 years, it has been one cold shoulder.