He currently models a bouncing mullet which flaps away in the wind as he runs into bowl. At the start of the tour he wore a headband, but he discarded this when his team-mates told him he looked like Bjorn Borg. On previous occasions his head has been shaven, and before the 1996 World Cup he donned a ponytail. And as one would expect, a man with such a look is not into soft, relaxing music.

“I listen to a bit of everything really,” Gillespie admitted yesterday “But I enjoy listening to hard rock. I used to listen to heavy metal, but not as much as people thought I did I have always been a Metallica fan, and I still am I also love Van Halen and Led Zeppelin. But I’ll listen to anything really, except some of this rap stuff. I can’t understand it.” And as for Joss Stone? “I gather she’s a very fine musician,” he said sarcastically. “But she would not be the first thing I put on my CD player.” Neither Gillespie nor Strauss had much to sing about at the end of the one-day series. Strauss scored 152 in one game, but that was against Bangladesh. He struggled against the Australians, but his future remains bright.

The same cannot be said for Gillespie, who, in some quarters, has already been written off as a spent force. The 30 year-old had a miserable time during the one-dayers and he will spend the build-up to the first Test at Lord’s worrying whether he has done enough to keep his place At The Oval, the omens were not very good. Gillespie misfielded the first ball that came his way and dropped a simple catch off Glenn McGrath on the fine leg boundary before he was invited to bowl. “It’s never much fun when you drop a sitter like that,” Gillespie reflected “You know what the English crowds are like.