"There will be very few, if any, changes to the [England] side at the Oval," says Vic Marks in The Observer. "My inclination would be to replace [Ian] Bell with Ravi Bopara. Initially, this conclusion was reached on purely cricketing grounds. In his last six Test innings his highest score is 31; he has dropped the odd half-chance; he no longer bowls or is no longer invited to bowl."

I was going to stress that this had nothing to do with jelly beans. Bell, it is alleged - and we must be careful here because The Observer can scarce afford a damaging court case on this issue - was the man who stationed the offending pair of beans on a good length when Zaheer came to the crease. You cannot drop a man for that. But if he is so bored with Test cricket that he has to resort to such silly japes to keep his spirits up....