Then came the most bizarre result in the past 100 years of Test cricket – the Black Caps winning 3-0 in India after the Sri Lankan embarrassment.

What is happening to home-ground advantage in Test cricket? It has been more than three decades since visiting teams have had such a winning run.

India and Australia, in particular, were generally tough to beat at home. Maybe they lost a Test or two, but not a series. South Africa, now sitting on top of the World Test Championship, have been winning at home as well as away, so they deserve that position. The Proteas towelled up Bangladesh at Mirpur and Chattogram after the Tigers had those two huge wins against Pakistan and drew the series in the West Indies.

Forget the form guide, back the visitors.

New Zealand beat India away but are struggling to match England at home. England have Bazballed their way into fifth position on the World Test Championship table with an 11-9 record. It is worth noting there have been only six draws in 59 Tests in this round of the WCT, all of which were rain-affected. Nobody plays for a draw any more – or nobody knows how to.

It seems the era of home dominance in Tests has been turned on its head. Last year, the waning West Indies had a watershed victory at fortress Gabba. The win was unexpected, and almost inexplicable.

The Australians had rarely lost at the Gabba since 1988, and then to arguably the greatest Test team of all time in the West Indies of that era, but now India and the modern Windies have broken the spell. Maybe T20 (and increasingly T10) cricket is affecting the batters in a way that even the most stoic are required to score at a white-ball clip.

The art of the draw had been on life support as T20 cricket infected the willow of impatient batsmen and diminished the attention span of players and spectators. It now looks to be buried by Bazball.

Test cricket has been through many “golden ages” in the past, starting in the 1890s. Are the new skills and technology of the modern cricket bat, along with shrinking boundaries, ushering in yet another golden era of Test cricket?

Occupying the crease, soaking up fast bowlers’ energy, taking the shine (and hardness) out of the ball are becoming archaic tenets. Head and Jaiswal take the shine off by belting the Kookaburra into the grandstand. Whatever works for you, I guess.

The two batsmen to prosper and set up wins for their teams so far have been two of the most attacking; they get the bowlers before the bowlers get them. And on the bouncing, seaming pitches served up so regularly these days, they have the theorem right.

Gone are the days when curators served up dry, flat batting pitches at the start of Tests (or Shield games) and let the spinners and a dose of reverse swing decide the game on the later days. The games no longer go the mandated distance, as much because pitches in Australia have healthy amounts of grass, are seam-bowling friendly and therefore prescribe attacking batting. Pink Kookaburras just add to the frenetic action.

Once upon a time, first-class pitches in Australia had zero grass above pitch level. It was all rolled in, flattened and often left with a shine on the surface. The evolution of the modern cricket pitch preparation has certainly tipped the game away from spin, and towards seam bowling dominance. India and Australia have those bases covered extraordinarily well.

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The respective spinners hardly got a trundle in Adelaide, but Brisbane may be little different. Can a golden age exclude spinners? Maybe not.

The recent golden era of Australian cricket occurred around the end of the 20th century and the start of the 21st as local cricket recovered from World Series Cricket and Australia had Shane Warne, ably backed up by Stuart MacGill. India have two modern-day greats in Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin. It would be nice if they, along with Nathan Lyon, played leading roles in the remainder of the series. That would be proper Test cricket, and perhaps a nod towards a new golden era.

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