The World Test Championship is here. It has begun.
From now on, there are no Test matches which carry no consequences. They all accumulate points towards the World Test Championship.
The days of telling people to do this or that in domestic cricket are over. Every Test counts.
Pakistan is in a unique situation with these Ashes.
In 10 months' time Pakistan plays an away series in England, so everything about strategy, pitch conditions and personnel matters.
But even before that, Pakistan tours Australia in just 3 months' time. Issues of team composition and Aussie strengths and weaknesses are of immediate importance.
So what have we learned so far?
1. THE AUSSIE BATSMEN HAVE POOR TECHNIQUE AGAINST THE MOVING BALL
Bancroft, Khawaja, Head and Wade looked all at sea against the moving ball. They played with hard hands and they lacked the confidence to try to move the score along.
Australia are not a great batting unit. Smith and Warner are top class, but the rest vary from decent (Khawaja) to mediocre (Bancroft) to poor (Wade).
2. AUSTRALIA CURRENTLY FAVOUR 3 QUICKS + 1 SPINNER
This will be fascinating, because the same thing applied last southern summer. They don't trust Mitchell Marsh to score enough runs from Number 6, and so they are picking an extra specialist batsman and therefore overbowling their 3 quicks just like they did at home against India.
3. ENGLAND HAVE SHOWN WHY 3 QUICKS JUST IS NOT ENOUGH OUTSIDE ASIA
England also have doubts about their batting, and picked an extra batsman and a part-time spinner who is a better batsman.
This allowed them to play 4 quicks ........but Jimmy Anderson broke down almost immediately. Leaving them with 3 quicks!
(It's strange, isn't it? Both teams have ended up with 2 wicketkeepers instead of 4 fast bowlers!)
When Jimmy Anderson left the match after 4 overs we then saw with England exactly what happens to Pakistan most of the time they play 3 quicks outside Asia.
England reduced Australia to 122-8, but their 3 remaining quicks were overbowled and lost their pace and accuracy, especially because using the spinner at the other end means the quicks only get 3 minutes rest between overs instead of 5.
122-8 then became 284 all out.
Stuart Broad talked about this on BBC Radio's Test Match Special after play, and the interview is now available as a podcast.
Broad explained that when the quick bowlers realized at Lunch that they had lost Anderson, they immediately slowed down their pace in the knowledge that they would have to bowl longer spells and couldn't afford any further injuries.
Broad talked about how reducing from 4 to 3 quicks meant that they could not attack the batsmen any more and instead had to go into a "holding" pattern of drying up the run rate.
He's right, and it means that Australia probably now have the runs on the scoreboard to win this match.
4. NOW WE FIND OUT WHY A WEAK BATTING TEAM SHOULDN'T PICK AN EXTRA BATSMAN
England's batting with a red ball is even weaker than Australia's. They were all out 85 against Ireland last week!
It's a very similar scenario to Pakistan: you know your top five batsmen are not great, and there is a temptation to pick an extra specialist batsman at Number 6 instead of an all-rounder.
But today, on Day 2, we will find out why that is a terrible idea.
Your sixth batsman by definition is even more average than the preferred 5 batsmen.
But England's 3 quicks were overbowled on Day 1, and they need at least the whole of Day 2 off bowling to recharge their batteries in order to bowl at full throttle on Day 3......and to reduce their own chance of injury.
The Test now all boils down to this. England can't afford to have their 3 quicks bowling again before Day 2 is over. If they do, they lose.
Too often a team which has a weak batting line-up packs the batting with an extra batsman and in doing so overloads the bowlers in their First Innings of bowling. The batsmen - even with a sixth specialist chosen - then still don't survive a whole day, and the already-overloaded bowlers have to go again without a full day off.
One day gone in The Ashes, and already so much for the Pakistan management to learn!
From now on, there are no Test matches which carry no consequences. They all accumulate points towards the World Test Championship.
The days of telling people to do this or that in domestic cricket are over. Every Test counts.
Pakistan is in a unique situation with these Ashes.
In 10 months' time Pakistan plays an away series in England, so everything about strategy, pitch conditions and personnel matters.
But even before that, Pakistan tours Australia in just 3 months' time. Issues of team composition and Aussie strengths and weaknesses are of immediate importance.
So what have we learned so far?
1. THE AUSSIE BATSMEN HAVE POOR TECHNIQUE AGAINST THE MOVING BALL
Bancroft, Khawaja, Head and Wade looked all at sea against the moving ball. They played with hard hands and they lacked the confidence to try to move the score along.
Australia are not a great batting unit. Smith and Warner are top class, but the rest vary from decent (Khawaja) to mediocre (Bancroft) to poor (Wade).
2. AUSTRALIA CURRENTLY FAVOUR 3 QUICKS + 1 SPINNER
This will be fascinating, because the same thing applied last southern summer. They don't trust Mitchell Marsh to score enough runs from Number 6, and so they are picking an extra specialist batsman and therefore overbowling their 3 quicks just like they did at home against India.
3. ENGLAND HAVE SHOWN WHY 3 QUICKS JUST IS NOT ENOUGH OUTSIDE ASIA
England also have doubts about their batting, and picked an extra batsman and a part-time spinner who is a better batsman.
This allowed them to play 4 quicks ........but Jimmy Anderson broke down almost immediately. Leaving them with 3 quicks!
(It's strange, isn't it? Both teams have ended up with 2 wicketkeepers instead of 4 fast bowlers!)
When Jimmy Anderson left the match after 4 overs we then saw with England exactly what happens to Pakistan most of the time they play 3 quicks outside Asia.
England reduced Australia to 122-8, but their 3 remaining quicks were overbowled and lost their pace and accuracy, especially because using the spinner at the other end means the quicks only get 3 minutes rest between overs instead of 5.
122-8 then became 284 all out.
Stuart Broad talked about this on BBC Radio's Test Match Special after play, and the interview is now available as a podcast.
Broad explained that when the quick bowlers realized at Lunch that they had lost Anderson, they immediately slowed down their pace in the knowledge that they would have to bowl longer spells and couldn't afford any further injuries.
Broad talked about how reducing from 4 to 3 quicks meant that they could not attack the batsmen any more and instead had to go into a "holding" pattern of drying up the run rate.
He's right, and it means that Australia probably now have the runs on the scoreboard to win this match.
4. NOW WE FIND OUT WHY A WEAK BATTING TEAM SHOULDN'T PICK AN EXTRA BATSMAN
England's batting with a red ball is even weaker than Australia's. They were all out 85 against Ireland last week!
It's a very similar scenario to Pakistan: you know your top five batsmen are not great, and there is a temptation to pick an extra specialist batsman at Number 6 instead of an all-rounder.
But today, on Day 2, we will find out why that is a terrible idea.
Your sixth batsman by definition is even more average than the preferred 5 batsmen.
But England's 3 quicks were overbowled on Day 1, and they need at least the whole of Day 2 off bowling to recharge their batteries in order to bowl at full throttle on Day 3......and to reduce their own chance of injury.
The Test now all boils down to this. England can't afford to have their 3 quicks bowling again before Day 2 is over. If they do, they lose.
Too often a team which has a weak batting line-up packs the batting with an extra batsman and in doing so overloads the bowlers in their First Innings of bowling. The batsmen - even with a sixth specialist chosen - then still don't survive a whole day, and the already-overloaded bowlers have to go again without a full day off.
One day gone in The Ashes, and already so much for the Pakistan management to learn!
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