Moeen Ali’s promotion from number eight in the England order to opening the batting struck a chord with Nottinghamshire’s Paul Franks more than most.
The stalwart all-rounder spent much of his career, which spanned two decades prior to retirement from first-class cricket last month, batting in the lower-middle order and averaging 28.
Franks counts his stint opening the batting in 2010/11 among the highlights of his career, not least because his resourcefulness helped secure the LV= County Championship trophy.
“We’d been in a similar position to what England are now. We’d struggled to find openers for the team since Jason Gallian and Darren Bicknell retired.
“We were looking for options, Alex Hales was doing okay at the top of the order, Mark Wagh’s preference was to bat at number three and we were looking for someone who could get us off to a decent start.
"Ready first suggested it to me during the winter. I wouldn’t take a backward step and said I'd give it a go, but I didn’t want it to affect my position in the team.
"I still wanted to be picked very much as a bowler and wanted to be the all-rounder in the side.
"We also didn’t want to neglect the fact that myself and Chris were having a lot of success batting together at that point, not necessarily pulling the team out of a whole, but doing a good job of making sure we were in good positions at all times.
“I’d had relative success, I was batting quite nicely during that period of my career, I’d faced a lot of the second new ball - which I know is very different to the first new ball, but it’s still a new ball - and I’d faced that a lot batting at number seven and eight.
“I put my hand up to give it a go, I did it my way, I did okay with it, I didn’t absolutely hammer it down like I would have liked, but it’s certainly something I enjoyed and look back fondly on.
“It could be very taxing mentally having bowled a lot of overs to go and put your pads on straight away.
“That’s something Moeen’s going to have to deal with because no doubt he’ll bowl a lot of overs in this series against Pakistan.
“It worked for a period and it’s something I look back on with fondness,” Franks continued as he recalled a stint that saw him open in three matches, including a score of 70 against Yorkshire and a crucial 40 to set Nottinghamshire on their way in a memorable and dramatic final match of the season against Lancashire.
“The most important thing was the team winning the title. I was able to contribute at a time when the team needed me.
“We had success while I was doing it and you won’t ever get more satisfaction than that.
“I was very pleased to have been able to do it and winning the championship was the icing on the cake.”
A series win against Pakistan would represent England’s equivalent success from the experiment.
And although Franks admitted being disappointed at Alex Hales not being selected, he wishes Ali - who scored 35 off 131 balls in his first knock at the top of the order earlier today - all the best for a successful stint in the opening position.
“Moeen’s a far better batter than I ever was,” said Franks. “He’s spent a lot of his years at Worcestershire batting in the top three, so he knows a lot more about batting than I did.
“He’s finding himself in very different conditions, with pretty extreme pace from the Pakistan seam bowlers and a lot of spin.
“One thing he has shown during his time with England is that he’s an exciting player with the ability to play against pace and seam and I’m looking forward to seeing how he gets on.
“Obviously I’m disappointed for Alex not to have got the nod and I don’t think that’s the end of him by any means.
“He’ll be working behind the scenes to get himself in as good a place as he can to make sure that if the chance comes, he’s ready to go.
“But Moeen’s got the first crack at it and for the sake of England I wish him well.”
The 2015 season has seen dramatic last-gasp four day victories, thrilling limited-overs contests and an historic Investec Ashes Test, all in the unique surroundings of Trent Bridge.
Next season, we’d wager, will be no less enthralling and frankly we’d hate for you to miss out.