It’s the most important part of Test cricket – and it’s not batting, bowling or fielding

October 31, 2026 — 3:00pm

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Peculiar, mostly, and occasionally remarkable theatre. Multiple formats and a raft of abilities have helped the sport become the second most popular on the planet, behind soccer.

Test cricket in particular has a lengthy, storied and well documented history. While contemporary players have tried to reinvent the wheel in the hope of leaving a legacy, the guts of the game have changed little since the 19th century.

Eleven a side, three stumps, 22 yards, overarm since the 1850s. The ball is almost identical in colour, size, mass and constitution to what it was back then.

If you visit the remarkable SCG museum, you can see a Test cricket ball from 1890. Though its leather hide is fading back towards its natural brown hue, you could take the ball out of the showcase and throw it to Nathan Lyon out in the middle, and he would grip and drift it as usual.

The complexities of a game played over multiple days in varying environments by humans with unique quirks, eccentricities and individualities throws up more possibilities than quantum physics.

Over 2639 Tests up to and including the third Test between South Africa and Australia in Cape Town, patterns have become imprinted. Cricket is stained by generalisations gleaned from 150 years of Tests and over a century of play before that, and one of them is that “when you win the toss, you should bat”.

Firstly, the toss of the coin determines the immediate progress of the game upon which may ride........

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