The ECB’s latest commission will embark on its review (“thorough”, “robust” and “far-ranging” no doubt), but nobody has to go far to identify the most important solution, that of inner toughness. Changing tv channels in the last couple of weeks has been sufficient. 

India have just played a three-Test series in South Africa, and lost 2-1, in very similar conditions to this Ashes series. The Kookaburra ball has zipped around, pitches have not been flat, totals have hovered around 220, and spin has seldom been part of the equation, but being hit on the body has. The one difference is that Australia’s fast bowlers are taller than India’s.

South Africa’s batting line-up, on paper, is thinner than it has ever been since readmission, especially as Quinton de Kock retired after the opening Test. Thin on paper, but not in ticker, or toughness. Two home batsmen out-scored all the stars in India’s vaunted line-up. 

Opening the batting in the current seamer-friendly conditions has arguably become more challenging than at any time in Test cricket, yet Dean Elgar showed how it can be done. He batted for 578 balls in the three Tests, soaking up the body-blows, scoring at only 40 runs per 100 balls but forcing India’s bowlers into fourth and fifth spells. No great talent, nothing special, not a batsman who has dominated in county cricket, averaging 36 for Somerset and Surrey – but tougher than boots. 

And in dethroning India, South Africa’s highest run-scorer was a complete unknown to England followers (except he came on as a sub during England’s last Test in South Africa, in Johannesburg, and shaped as a sparky young kid in the slips). Keegan Petersen was player of the match in the third Test in Cape Town, which South Africa won by seven wickets, and he was player of the series too, for his 276 runs at 46.