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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
James Wallace

Test cricket summers are the sunshine-shaped bookmarks of our lives

Ben Stokes in the nets at Trent Bridge
Ben Stokes in the nets at Trent Bridge before the first men’s Test of the English summer against Zimbabwe. Photograph: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

The first Test of an English summer always has a certain frisson – who is shaping up and who might be shipping out? Will that debutant be able to make his mark? Will that old-timer still be able to cut it? Anticipation builds and the news cycle swirls in the run-up. Now here it is, the opening act.

High summer lies ahead, ready to spill its stories like when they slice open the shark in Jaws. Look – is that a Ben Duckett double century next to that number plate? And over there, is that … it is – Farhan Ahmed poking out from behind that chewed rubber dinghy with a five-fer on Test debut. How has that happened?

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