A marquee series decided, if not quite yet done, the temptation at this point is always one of future-gazing, to weigh up some inevitable changing of the guard and wonder ‘who stays, who goes’?
In reality, in cricket’s longest format, change is usually more gradual, regeneration performed by stealth. Even with the introduction of a World Test Championship, careers are not as defined by tournament cycles as they are in the white-ball game (or other sports, for that matter) and retirements seldom come en masse at the realisation that the next looks a bridge too far.
