Birmingham warmly embraces the B-list

NICK HOWSON AT EDGBASTON: The second LV= Insurance Test is missing as many as 12 stellar names but try telling a near 18,000, 70 per cent capacity crowd that this series decider doesn't matter

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If you include touring comrades, and for the purpose of this frivolousness intro we shall, Fleetwood Mac have been through 43 members across their seven decades as one of popular culture's great soap operas.

Even their most ardent fans will have done well to catch their vintage line-up in a live environment. The quintet of Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie and John McVie is the quintessential line-up, spending three spells together between 1975 and 1987, briefly in 1998 and then from 2013 to 2018.

All other incarnations, with respect, are half-baked. This is the band at their musical, emotional and controversial best.

The personal relationships and betrayals that divided them were what made them fascinating. The dynamic on stage added an extra layer of intrigue to what was already one of the great pop artists of our lifetime.

Try telling any fan who watched the band's classic hits outside of those aforementioned periods that they couldn't be enjoyed all the same. The lack of one or more individuals didn't detract from the band's beauty, the classic tracks, the soulful harmonies or expert musicianship. Enough of the key qualities existed to have a ball.

This second LV= Insurance Test between England and New Zealand, an early summer knock around for one team and a World Test Championship warm-up for another, is lacking its own full stellar cast.

^{Kane Williamson and BJ Watling have been left out ahead of the India final}

England are without four front-line players resting up after the Indian Premier League, have overlooked another in Jack Leach and have Ben Foakes laid up with a torn hamstring.

The Kiwis meanwhile are busy wrapping their party in cotton wool ahead of returning to Southampton next week. They've made six changes from Lord's, leaving out captain Kane Williamson and BJ Watling as a precaution while resting Tim Southee. You can make your own mind up whether the same goes for Kyle Jamieson, Mitchell Santner and Colin de Grandhomme, but they are missing too.

Between 1947 and 2007, England B played 57 football internationals against a variety of opponents the last of which came with Albania at Turf Moor, home of James Anderson's beloved Burnley. No disrespect to those on show, but this feels as much like a B Test as is possible to find in the modern-day, even in an era where the shadow of franchise cricket is more significant and sinister than ever.

Both nations' box office names are missing, the occasion lacks real intensity and the idea this is a series decider is rather lost.

Yet, these perhaps unavoidable observations could not be less relevant on a day like this. Because the fans are back, really back.

Since May 17, attendances have been restricted to 25 per cent and in some instances even less due to social distancing requirements. Just 6,700 could attend each of the five days of the first Test at the home of cricket last week.

^{Trent Boult's produced the stand-out moments in the middle}

Thanks to the match being declared a government pilot event Edgbaston can allow just under 18,000 into the ground on each day. Bar Under-16s, who were deemed unable to give medical consent, all tickets sold since the Test was announced in January were honoured.

Only Leicester City's FA Cup final victory over Chelsea at Wembley last month (20,000) has been watched by a bigger crowd since the pandemic began. It is the largest to watch a cricket match in England since the climax to the 2019 Ashes. It is a landmark day worth celebrating.

If you spent time looking around the home of Warwickshire; at the fancy dress, the renditions of Jerusalem, God Save the Queen and Football's Coming Home, beach balls finding their way onto the outfield, the beer snakes and the various japes in the Hollies, you'd never know this was a lukewarm international with a B-list cast. All the sights and sounds would convince you this was a clutch Ashes Test at the height of summer, not an irrelevant, money-making international played underneath overcast skies starting on a mild Thursday.

The occasion was the perfect storm of compelling entertainment and a return to normality. Some will have got too excited,  seeing more pints than wickets. But that's ok. We've all earned this one.

Many traditionalists have become cold, even slightly resistant to the section cricket attendees who treat a day at the Test like a wedding; an all-dayer that ends in the middle of a conga line attached to a complete stranger.

We can let them off for this Test, for they made loving this particular day very fun indeed.