Jimmy's the One and Don't Ever Forget It

Many England supporters, blinking sleep from their eyes at some ungodly hour to view the opening morning of England’s second Test against India, may well have carried on blinking when they saw the name of James Anderson on the team sheet.

By the time the long day had ended in Visakhapatnam, they and everyone else had their answer to questions over his inclusion; if Anderson’s fit to play, he plays, every time, every place, everywhere.

On the face of it, there seemed sound reasons for delaying the 34-year-old’s return until the third match of the series in Mohali, as had been widely predicted.

Though Anderson felt he had recovered sufficiently from the stress fracture of the shoulder that forced him to miss the tour to Bangladesh – and experience tells us that he would rather have his monobrow shaved with a blunt penknife than miss out on a Test cap – England could have been forgiven for erring on the side of caution and allowing him another ten days of rehab.

Alastair Cook’s side may not have won the first match in Rajkot, but they did everything but, no-one in the XI that came so close there deserved to miss out, so, if it weren’t broke, why fix it?

If Anderson was to come back, with three spinners clearly necessary again, which of Stuart Broad or Chris Woakes could you, in all conscience, leave out?