A left and right pair costs the fielding side more than a boundary

Every single they run forces a full field change, and the tax that imposes on a bowler is badly underrated.

Watch the fielding side rather than the ball for one over of a left and right partnership. Nine men shuffling after every single, the captain pointing, somebody arriving late at deep midwicket, the bowler waiting at the top of his mark with his rhythm interrupted.

That is a cost, and it is not counted anywhere. A settled bowler in a settled field bowls to a plan. A bowler who has to wait forty seconds while fielders cross, then adjust his line because the batter now facing him plays in the opposite direction, is a different bowler, and the difference shows up in his fourth and fifth balls rather than immediately.

The angles are the real damage. A right arm over bowler attacking the stumps to a right hander is bowling across a left hander into his pads, so his stock ball becomes his worst ball, and switching to round the wicket costs him whatever movement he was getting. Spinners have it harder still, because the same delivery that turns into a right hander turns away from a left hander, and the field for one is close to inverted for the other. A captain facing a good left and right pair is not defending a partnership, he is defending two separate innings that alternate every ball.

Which is why I think batting orders should be built with handedness as a live selection criterion rather than a happy accident. Sides talk about it during a series, then pick on form, and end up with four right handers in a row through the middle overs, which is the easiest passage of play a fielding captain will ever get.

The counter is real. Rotating the strike deliberately to keep the pair alternating means running twos that should be threes and refusing singles off the fifth ball, and that discipline can cost more runs than the confusion it creates. Sometimes. Against a captain who has a plan for it, definitely.

Against a captain improvising, which is most of them in the middle overs, a pair that runs hard and keeps changing ends will get a bad ball every over simply because nobody is settled. That is a very cheap way to score, and it requires no risk at all.

Ugly cricket. Extremely effective.