Helmets, padding and the ability to practice better has made everyone fair game and you’re acutely aware that you’ll receive a bouncer when you walk out there, especially as you’ll be tasked to do the same when you have the ball in your hand.
Your palms get sweaty, you need a nervous trip to the toilet every five minutes and you can’t take your eyes off who the opposition captain is gesturing at to bowl next.
I made the mistake of bouncing Jofra Archer in a County Championship match in 2018, hitting him on the head.
As soon as it was my turn to bat, I knew who’d have the ball in his hand.
The index finger on my right hand is still swollen from where the first ball I faced from him squeezed in against my bat handle in front of my face. He got me out next ball for nought.
The psychological lift a wagging tail gives to a dressing room is also huge.
It lightens the mood, it gives players the confidence that the momentum in the game is in their favour and you can physically see the frustration in the opposition as they toy with how to extract the last few wickets.
The top order batters’ minds are distracted from facing the opening overs of the following innings and if the tail really wags it can descend into chaos.
England were the sixth worst at removing the tail in the previous cycle of the World Test Championship. The opposition averaged 21.76 per wicket after the fall of the sixth wicket against England in that period.
Compare that to the best in the world at removing the tail, New Zealand, where the opposition averaged 15.48, and it feels like a significant swing in the game.
Cast your mind back to the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston in 2023 that Australia won by two wickets.
In a chase of 282, Scott Boland as nightwatchman scored 20 from 40 balls, Pat Cummins 44 not out from 73 and Nathan Lyon a 28-ball unbeaten 16.
More was made of the Stokes declaration on day one, but fundamentally, the inability to blow the tail away in the second innings was where the game was lost.
Killing the tail is going to be imperative to England’s success not only in this series, but in this winter’s Ashes too. Tongue has shown he has the skills. The likes of Carse, Archer or Gus Atkinson could do it too.
Gobbling up rabbit pie could be more important than anyone thinks.
