The Eleven
Who got left out, and why nobody explained it.
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1981
The captain who was not the captain
Ian Botham stopped being England’s captain after the previous Test. He stayed in the side, and at Headingley he took six wickets and made 149 not out.
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1991
One hundred and thirty-eight
Australia dropped Steve Waugh for the fourth Test at Adelaide and picked his twin brother. Mark Waugh made 138 on debut.
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2002
The eleven that became ten
Simon Jones tore his knee in the first session of the 2002 Ashes. England played the rest of the match with ten men and he did not play a Test for two years.
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2004
The two names that are not there
India’s captain and their best spinner both missed the Nagpur Test that lost them a home series. Twenty-two years later there is still no agreed account of why.
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2005
The bowler who was not there
Glenn McGrath was not in Australia’s eleven at Edgbaston in 2005. They lost by two runs and never recovered the series.