“It’s a bit of classical music at one end, and hip-hop at the other.”

— Dinesh Karthik, describing KL Rahul batting at one end and Rishabh Pant at the other, versus aggressive English bowling on day four

“Test is life.”

— Harsha Bhogle, longtime Indian cricket commentator

Test cricket is the closest thing we have in team sports to life, itself, because there is no clock except for the sunlight and weather conditions, and

it’s played for eight hours a day, for two innings over five days, with the result only coming from the taking of a sides’ ten wickets all-out, or the surpassing of a sides’ chased total.

Conditions.

Bowling.

and then

Batting.

is the order of importance in Test.

And if it’s a draw after five days, real fans still find the greatest enjoyment from the contest.

I love it.