Hear that? Pitter patter of footsteps. Whoosh. Silence. Thud. Groan. The sound of leather not on willow. Cricket revolves around the tussle between bat and ball. But in order to make runs, batting in the longest format is as much about survival and occupation: of actively choosing not to hit the ball.
According to CricViz, 16% of all deliveries in Test cricket are left, which makes the abjuration of a stroke comfortably the second most common “shot” in the format after the forward defensive. All that energy expended over nothing. A Beckettian passage of play that repeats sometimes over a hundred times a Test match. Day after day. Nothing happens. Somebody bowls. Somebody lets it go. It’s … absorbing?
