While the entire world was going nuts over IPL, a few purists were waiting it out for you. Welcome back. Test Cricket, just like life, is the ultimate physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and psychological test.

At times in a test match, you have to wait out a grilling session, leave the ball well, block well, possibly not score, for over 90 minutes, which may feel like an eternity.

If you're a bowler, you have to be patient and bowl relentlessly for that one time the leather meets the outside edge of the willow, only to see it go between 1st and 2nd slip for 4 or worse, dropped by your teammate.

Like the players wait out these tough periods, we, the red ball enthusiasts, patiently wait out the white ball season. This is the beauty of test cricket. Any analogy applies to life as well.

We always go through periods when things might not go our way but just like in test cricket, patience, perseverance, luck, and hard work come together. There will be a point when things work out for us as long as we wake up and show up.

Sometimes we fail at our first attempt at doing something; we feel we can do nothing to escape that situation. Hopefully, life gives us a 2nd innings to correct our mistakes and rise above our past. Imagine each phase of your life like a Day of Test Cricket. Session 1(childhood) is a lot easier, while for some, Day 2 Session 3 (early adulthood) is a lot easier. We all have our own sessions to battle out, and quitting isn't an option. You have to wake up and show up.

Throughout test cricket, the ups and downs are endless and very similar to life. Just like a ruthless spell of short balls being thrown at you, it's all about hanging in there.

Some people don't understand how you can watch 5 days of sport, without the guarantee of a result. Sometimes it's not about winning or losing. It's just about showing fight. Haven't we all been in a situation where we keep doing something and aren't seeing any results? But we still go out there and do it because we don't want to lose. Sometimes, not losing is as good as winning.

The recent grit by Ashwin and an injured Hanuma Vihari in Sydney, when they fought hard and battled relentlessly to keep India alive in the series. That's greater than almost anything in sport.

I truly believe that test Cricket can teach you more about life than any other sport.

I don't know if I can express this well enough, so I'll share one of my favourite quotes on Test Cricket.

It does break my heart when I see kids today talking about how boring a leave or a solid defence is. I see kids at the net sessions trying lap shots, reverse sweeps, helicopter shots, but none of them want to leave on merit or block a good ball.

I believe there has been a positive impact of white-ball cricket on test cricket; the emergence of talents like Bumrah, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar are testament to that.

I hope the history and tradition of the sport stay alive through test cricket and is always the superior format of the game.

The World Test Championship (WTC) is a solid initiative to change the mindset towards Test Cricket for the coming generation.

The most nerve-wracking bit for me as an Indian supporter is the WTC Finals. We have had to seriously grind it out over the last 2 years to reach the finals.

After having a perfect start to the championship, it was ridiculous that the criteria changed from points to % in the middle of the tournament. Either way, with the recent series win in Australia, and after defeating England at home, we're here.

It's an absolute bummer that the WTC Finals aren't happening at Lord's, the home of test cricket, due to COVID protocols. I'd have been there for sure if it were at Lord's. I was lucky enough to watch a test match there, but that's a story for another day.

Starting today at Lord's, England takes on New Zealand.

I will surely be glued when the red cherry is dropped in the hands of the new ball specialists.

I hope to see Broad and Anderson together today. Every summer, I feel this could be their last summer as an opening pair, but they keep getting better and better with age. What worries me is that this is excellent preparation for the Kiwi camp. Let's see what happens.

No matter which session of your life you're at, stick around, leave anything outside the stumps, don't chase temptations; you could get knicked.

Most importantly, be patient. If things aren't going your way today, it's not the end of the world. Wake up and show up, and tomorrow could be a totally different session.

This is life, a test match, not a T20.