Thirty years ago, Mike Gatting’s outfit took the traditional English,which is to say slightly shambolic, road to Brisbane. Expectations were suitably low when they arrived in Queensland, and they surprised everyone by winning the first Test. Andrew Strauss’s team, seven years ago, was everything that Gatting’s team was not: efficient, ruthless and very evidently on top of their game from the off. They arrived in Queensland in two stages, with the bowlers sent ahead to acclimatise, highlighting the preparation and planning that underpinned that successful expedition. Each tour takes on a character of its own, and it would be fair to say that, in its early stages, Joe Root’s tour…

Source: The Times November 13, 2017 00:02 UTC