You go to war with the army you have – so goes a piece of unintended wisdom from Donald Rumsfeld as cycled through Natasha Lyonne on Russian Doll. Like any good motto leaning towards truism, it’s something you can take beyond the literal and apply to the trivial. It’s a phrase that you can mutter as you plough into the passport queue at a seething airport, or glance at the other adult trying to control an eighth birthday party.
For our purposes, it can apply to any sporting situation dealing with a lack of resources. Billy Beane could have slotted it into Moneyball, just as it fits for a visiting Test cricket team in Delhi this week. They may have been soundly beaten in the first Test in Nagpur, but Australia couldn’t then and can’t now pick a raft of quality spinners or quality players of spin against India because those players don’t currently exist.
