The head coach, Dan Vettori, insisted it was strictly a cricket decision. There wasn't a discussion, it was just about who was the best option for us. We missed out on Adil Rashid, so then the priority was to get a spin bowler, and we didn't think that quality was in the local market so we had to look overseas.
In the city where a few handfuls of rupees were melted down to make the original Calcutta Cup, it was Scotland who lost their shape when the heat started to rise and the pressure to build. England won by five wickets and though it was, in the end, emphatic it was not exactly a rediscovery of peak form, even if Tom Banton appeared to have located his with a 41-ball 63 that powered his team to victory.
If they come along more regularly even than British general elections to which Brenda produced her timeless reaction in 2017 they at least have more interesting results: the past five have had five different winners and the past three six different finalists. What's more, though not much time has passed since the last one ended with India beating South Africa in Barbados, it seems to have been long enough for the game to shift into a fresh and exhilarating new gear.
India have levelled the Twenty20 series against Australia, sharing the blows with the bat for a five-wicket win with nine balls to spare in Hobart. The hosts posted 186-6 on Sunday night on the back of an explosive 74 from 38 balls from Tim David batting at No 4 and a Marcus Stoinis half-century. Australia kept themselves in the hunt with regular wickets in India's chase, before Washington Sundar's unbeaten 49 from 23 got India home.
The first game of the series was abandoned after 9.4 overs of the India innings, after they were put in by Australia. Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav and opener Shubman Gill lit up what play there was with the former hitting two fours and a six in the final three deliveries before the rain ended the game. Those strikes propelled Suryakumar to 39 off 24, while Gill struck 37 off 20 with the pair sharing their unbroken partnership of 62 in 5.9 overs.
Another summer is over and, for Jos Buttler, life and cricket feel more precious than ever. The fleeting nature of both has been accentuated by the loss of Buttler's father, John, after his unexpected death in August. The 35-year-old will soon talk movingly about grief and acceptance but, first, he reflects on his venerable place in white-ball cricket after England's international summer ended in a low-key series in Ireland.
It was mildly absurd in one sense, a day of rain showers in Cardiff turning the first T20 international between England and South Africa into a shortened thrash that did not get underway until 8.50pm. But the hardy spectators who stuck around were at least rewarded for their patience with something resembling a match; a bit of fun, chiefly, albeit one that now sees the tourists go into 's second outing at Old Trafford with a 1-0 lead in this three-match end-of-summer series.
