As was mentioned here some weeks back, Bangladesh aren’t a threat in Test cricket – yet. But, ahead of the one-day series which begins on Sunday, England should beware of their opponents ODI credentials.

The big picture says they shouldn’t. In all Bangladesh have lost 161 out of 218 ODIs. Even their home record looks poor – 27 games won out of 87, most of them against Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ireland and the likes. Against the Test-playing nations (excluding Zimbabwe) there have been just 11 wins in 144 ODIs (England are the only ones they are yet to beat).

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The man on the train nudged his mate to show him a report of Tendulkar’s double hundred. “We were embarrassed,” said his mate in a South African accent. Well, that’s one way of looking at it if you’re being completely Cyclopic. Perish the thought.

Another way of looking at it is that you (South Africa) were humbled by greatness, made to look ordinary by the most complete batsman of this generation, and most others.

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EXPERIENCE! Sachin has now played over 12,000 games of cricket, putting him third in the all-time list behind WG Grace and a Mr Rachel Heyhoe-Flint of Wolverhampton, who has played TWO games of cricket every day since 1927, but only because his wife made him.

POWER! Despite being only four feet tall, Sachin can bench press 460 pounds. If Sachin was an ant, this would be the equivalent of AntSachin lifting a Cornish PASTY.

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Sorry to harp on about the man of the moment, but how good exactly is Craig Kieswetter?

I only ask because the temptation – already succumbed to by this journalist – has been to bracket him tentatively with another Somerset man, Marcus Trescothick. OK, so he was born in Johannesburg, not Keynsham, and bats right-handed, not the other way round. But Kieswetter possesses something of Trescothick’s purity of strokeplay. And that, in a cricketing culture which suffers existential angst whenever an opener hits the ball over the top, is cause for celebration.

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So, it’s goodnight Brett Lee, and Test cricket loses one of it’s few genuine box-office bowlers.

His Test career was an odd one. He finishes as Australia’s fourth highest wicket-taker with 310 wickets in 76 Tests – more than Benaud, Lindwall, Thomson, Hughes and Miller. Yet for the English, Lee will be remembered primarily for his pace, and as an inconsistent nearly man, despite opening the bowling for the greatest side in Test history.

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Craig Kieswetter’s emergence – which threatens, in more ways than one, to mirror that of Kevin Pietersen – means it’s crunch time for Matt Prior.

England may be planning to use Kieswetter as a batsman only for the time being, but if his form continues (he has scored 31, 77*, 40*, 50 and 81 in his last five Twenty20 matches for England A as well as 143 for an England XI in today’s 50-over tour match) then it won’t be long before pundits and selectors alike will wonder why he shouldn’t take the wicketkeepers slot and remove any doubt over whether England play five bowlers. Even the Ashes may not be too soon.

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Kevin Pietersen finding form is bad news for his team-mates. Which batsman can the English media throw pies at now? For it is unheard of that us journalists are completely happy with the batting line-up. So who’s turn is it? Well, the usual suspects of Cook, Bell and Collingwood are all in form so, sorry Jonathan Trott, your time has come.

Is it deserved? Well no, not really. He has had one bad Test. Yet a worrying trend emerged against South Africa – his calmness eroded away to make way for an aura of timidity.

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Craig Kieswetter has been added to England’s one-day squad and in Saturday’s Twenty20 match against Pakistan, Matt Prior batted after Tim Bresnan. “If he’s batting that low down the order, he’s really only playing as a specialist keeper,” said Rob Key – the implication being that Kieswetter would offer runs as well if he had played.

Ignoring any debate about the relative merits of each player’s batting and wicketkeeping, and the fact that England don’t play another Twenty20 for a while, Twenty20 is one format where you don’t necessarily need three-dimensional cricketers. Obviously, I’m not suggesting that England start selecting cartoon characters – I mean ‘three-dimensional’ in the modern, cricketing sense – players who bat and bowl or bat and keep wicket.

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Another classic Test match at one of the great theatres of the game. This was another heart-warming day for the five-day game, another verification of Test cricket’s unique properties.

You can’t help smiling at Harbhajan Singh’s football-style celebration. He wasn’t engulfed mid-pitch by team-mates but sprinted to the boundary for some look-at-me posturing.

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