Forgive me if I don’t join the general ‘Make mine a treble’ hoo-ha about the future of Test cricket after the theatre of the final day of the Oval Test against India, as an injured Chris Woakes made his way to the crease. Why was Woakes ever allowed to bat? His shoulder was dislocated and he was clearly in agony. Of course he wanted to help his country but he should have been stopped by Ben Stokes or Baz McCullum. This was a game of cricket, not the search for the nuclear codes.

We knew the last pair would have to run to try to keep Woakes off the strike. What if he had tripped? That happens on cricket pitches – a lot. And what if he had had to face a ball? Some poor Indian bowler would have had to work out what to do with a very hard ball that he was about to hurl at somebody seriously i

See Full Page