Trevor Bayliss has said that the final Test at Sydney is an opportunity to “look at some different people”, but I wouldn’t experiment in a Test match. You hear it on Twitter: ‘Just give X a go’. Well, why not give Tom, Dicky or Harry a go! You’ve got to earn the right to get in the team, or somebody’s got to be playing that badly that they get dropped. There is a big difference between experimenting and changing the team because someone is in chronic form.

In this case it’s time to leave Moeen Ali out. He’s too good a player not to rediscover his form eventually but he’s had a bad time of it on this tour and needs a break. It’s just not happened for him and he isn’t suited to Australia. They have selected young Mason Crane as their second spinner. Now play him.

It’s the nature of the beast in any sport that questions will be asked about players’ form but Cook’s double-century showed he still has that determination and hunger. He was putting in the extra hours, trying to find form, and it worked for him. Everybody’s now pitching it up to Cook so he will have been working hard on his driving. He’s never been a great driver but at Melbourne his driving was excellent. How long he continues to play Test cricket entirely depends on him but all the signals are that he wants to carry on. He likes batting – it’s as simple as that.

Back in the day a draw was considered fine but it’s not as acceptable now. Run-rates are much higher these days and both teams are generally going for a positive result, but that is very dependent on the pitch. I’ve always been told by groundsmen that if you have an even coverage of dry grass, with a very good root system, you’ll get a very good pitch which will be a proper contest between bat and ball. This clearly wasn’t the case at the MCG.

***

And finally…

I’ve joined the Dry January crew! I’ve never done it before – I usually go for a Thirsty January – but I’m getting ready to go to New Zealand and I want to be in top form for that.

I’m also touring the country doing a show with Aggers, called An Evening With Aggers and Bumble. We’ve done three shows already and we’ll be coming soon to a theatre near you, if you live near Malvern, Liverpool, Nottingham or Bath.

Bumble was speaking to Jo Harman