Maybe it was the sight of Rory Burns’s magnificent mane of brown hair, bouncing behind him as he trundled up to the wicket to deliver a tame dobbler against Warwickshire. Perhaps it was Sir Alastair Cook against Kent, sporting an impish grin as he approached the crease at an angle, his arms fanned out and bent at the elbow before serving a ball high on humour but lacking any bite.
It could have been Michael Burgess’s 178 from No 8 at Edgbaston against Surrey in the opening round of the County Championship season. Or the drawn match in Derby a week later that saw Cheteshwar Pujara, Shan Masood and Tom Haines all manage double tons. Then again it might have been any of the other 32 centuries scored across eight days of domestic cricket. Whatever prompted it, a counterintuitive idea spilled over the horizon and opened our eyes to its inarguable truth: batting in April in England isn’t so difficult after all.
