Before the second one-day international against India, Joe Root had faced just three balls from left-arm wrist spin bowlers in his entire career. All three were from Kuldeep Yadav and two of them dismissed him.

The fourth such ball went a little better, bringing Root up to a 50-50 survival rate. He pretty much just took it from there, making an unbeaten hundred in the match and another in the following match, while Kuldeep’s returns went the opposite way: 6-25 to 3-68 to 0-55.

Back then, the shortest format still retained its ‘hit and giggle’ reputation and in making it abundantly clear that they were going to bring adrenal competitiveness to even that fixture, England ignited a small fire that grew into arguably the most memorable five-match Test series of all.

Test cricket’s epic nature is the point, but you don’t start with an epic – you build up to it.

You don’t put the headliners on before the support act. No-one rides the Tour de France to get in form for the Arctic Race of Norway. You build towards big things. Give people an early chance to warm-up and latch onto storylines and you will hit loftier heights than if you’d run the exact same tour in reverse.