It’s close-run: the bat dangling outside off-stump like a sock on a Hills Hoist, the hectoring for video reviews from second slip, the overshadowing of the captain, the confected outrage at a TV reporter in an airport? But the shoulder charge of Sam Konstas in Melbourne wins it by DRS from doing a Marcel Marceau sandpaper act in Sydney. Both showed a once-great Test cricketer stuck behind the times. He’ll always be a favourite for me, but so was Changa Langlands. Even the best can stay too long.

Most disappointing player

This will sound tough on a bowler who took 20 wickets at 31, but Mohammed Siraj was the key like-for-like difference between the teams. Put simply, Australia’s fast bowling depth defeated India’s. Siraj is a world-class bowler, but with the new ball he was repeatedly too short and too wide, and he could not give Jasprit Bumrah the back-up, in penetration or accuracy, that India needed. Many other players in this series were inferior to Siraj, but his underperformance was pivotal in a way that theirs wasn’t. India’s bowling was a one-man band when a two-man band would have been enough.

Iron men

Siraj deserves admiration for playing all five Test matches and producing his best when Bumrah was cooked in Sydney. Bumrah, Siraj, Patrick Cummins and Mitchell Starc bowled their hearts out across five matches in seven weeks. They deserve a rest.

Scott Boland

Yeah!

People love going to stuff

A lot has been made of the record-breaking crowds, but don’t people love going out at the moment? Australia’s football codes, men’s and women’s sport, and random things like New Year’s Eve and live concerts are smashing it. As an enochlophobic agoraphobic hypochondriac hermit, I offer no insights into why. We’re in a phase of flocking, where tickets to big events are a treat most can’t deny themselves. Blame property prices, end times or something, but this social change is working for live entertainment.

One-tier, two-tier, four-day, five-day? The answer: India

It’s painful to hear administrators from Australia and England speak of Test cricket’s future as if they have a say in it. All their questions lead to the same place: Test cricket will do what India wants. Our role is to lie down for a tummy rub and hope our owner still loves us.

Sam Konstas

Lots of us enjoyed what he did. He’s 19, and he worked to a plan agreed upon by his coach and captain. The ends justified the means, and this was just a first act. Save your curiosity for what happens when Konstas goes through the career trajectory of all the batting biggies: slumps and goes back to the Shield to build the long-term foundations of their game. Konstas won’t have to do this. He can take multi-million-dollar offers from T20 leagues instead. Serve his apprenticeship in front of ten people in Coffs or St Kilda, or spend his twenties reverse-ramping for gazillions in front of packed houses in Mumbai? He doesn’t seem the old-fashioned type.

More help for spinners please

Nathan Lyon looked in good form when he had a decent bowl in Melbourne. Anyone who loves Test cricket loves spin bowling. Not even Warnie would have got much of a go this Australian summer. Memo to the BCCI/ICC: should Test matches be three innings a side?

Travis Head wasn’t the Australian vice-captain

It looked like Steve Smith was, it sounded like Steve Smith was, Head himself knew Steve Smith was, and now that Cummins is not going to Sri Lanka, we’ve been let in on the secret. So why wasn’t Steve Smith officially vice-captain against India? Maybe David Warner knows.

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