Graham Swann was at his inspirational best during the Edgbaston Test between England and Pakistan; not with the ball, but with his passionate words in the commentary box.

I watched a fascinating period of play in the 3rd England vs Pakistan Test Match from Headingley. James Vince was being forensically investigated by the excellent Panistani left arm seamers.

How good are you at failing?

As a player and a coach, I have endured my fair share of failure. We all do. Failure is central to cricket's core. A bowler fails, a batter succeeds. The batter fails and the fielding side is happy. A duck is the ultimate batting failure. One team succeeds and one team fails.

The best batters in the world succeed once every three to four innings.

That's a 75% failure rate.

With these numbers and experiences in mind, how good are you at failing?

The first week of July is always a week of mixed emotions for me at Millfield.

When a player moves slightly legside and eases the ball over extra cover for four or six it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It looks great.

But it's often messed up through ignorance. So let's put that right.

I have become increasingly aware of different learning styles and preferences within teams over the years and have been trying to find different review methods that connect with those different styles.

What do you see when watching a batter in a net or out in the middle?

What do you notice?

These are the key questions that I ask of myself when working with any player for the first time.

I received a cry for help on Facebook the other night from a dear friend of mine who plays village cricket in the heart of Somerset.

Back in 2006, England coach at the time Duncan Fletcher asked me if we should select the 21 year old, Alistair Cook to open the batting in the first Test Match. I had worked with Cooky with England U15s and despite not being able to hit the ball particularly hard in those days, myself and another coach at the time pushed for his selection amongst physically stronger players who could beat the field with power.

The 15 year old Cook had something that was different. As coaches, we wanted to give that talent the opportunity as it may grow into something special. So, My response to Fletcher in 2006 went a little bit like this,

Who here has the ambition to become a successful professional cricketer?

Every year at Millfield I ask each of our A Team squads this same question. In each team, I see a minimum of eight to 10 hands shoot up in the air.