This is about England, but we'll have to get there by way of Pakistan. And specifically, by way of the nightmares generation after generation of Pakistani batters - and their fans - have had about pace bowling in foreign climes.
This is not trauma-baiting, I promise. Let's call the following a bit of catharsis. Better yet let's say this is a cleansing. Only by confronting all your worst fears, after all, will you be able to face them again properly.
So, close your eyes and go to that dark place. What do you see? We're not ageists here but if you're an uncle of a particular vintage let's say, perhaps Max Walker has left a permanent scar on you. That's right, the guy who wasn't Dennis Lillee in Sydney that day in January 1973, with an action so convoluted he was affectionately known as "Tangles", swinging his way through a batting line-up of Sadiq, Zaheer, Majid, Mushtaq and Asif.
Some of the same uncles will swear they still wake up in sweats at the thought of the West Indian attack from the 1976-77 series in the Caribbean. Garner and Roberts of course, but dear God, the pure pace and aggro of Colin Croft. Thirty-three wickets was the size of his scar from that series, none deeper than the 8-29 on the first day at Port-of-Spain, knocking them over for 180. He was an unknown, in only his second Test and playing only because - wait for this - Michael Holding was injured.
Younger folk are destined to forever lug around in their heads the image of a single delivery. The one that pitches just back of a length, delivered from on high and against the backdrop of a piercing blue sky, nipping away imperceptibly. The soundtrack is always Bill Lawry - "Got'im!" and it's always in Perth, even though it wasn't always at Perth. The bounce he got, you see, made it like it was always Perth. That one ball, over and over again at that outside edge, and the deliverer, Glenn McGrath.
And finally, there is the English Seamer even though in these nightmares he doesn't need to actually be English. This is that guy who carries English clouds around with him even, say, in Sri Lanka. Not quick, not even close, but does things with the ball and threatens both edges and makes the SSC in Colombo in the aughts feel like Headingley in the 80s. I mean, just look at Nuwan Kulusekara's record against Pakistan
The identities here are not important. Every generation of Pakistani batters, every generation of Pakistan fan will have their own specific nightmare of fast bowling. It's the genres that matter. The pure pace demon, the weird-action guy, the metronome beanpole and the English Seamer.
And when you come across these generational nightmares all at once in one attack on one day, then, well, we have 171, 135 and here at Lord's, 110. How could it have been anything else but a nightmare?
Yeah, yeah, we know, in assessing England's bowling, a hefty Pakistan tax here needs to be applied, both to this particular side and also to pretty much all historic Pakistan sides (allowing Marcus North and Shane Watson Test six-fors kind of ensures that lifetime tax). And this Lord's surface too; it has been a seriously fun pitch where lengths work best full, the cover-driving can be beautiful and the slips and stumps always expectant.
So this - and with apologies for this preamble - is where we get to England and this bowling attack. And really, it's kind of fitting for this summer of waylaid plans and the preceding winter of fewer plans, that this attack has come together almost by accident. Ollie Robinson, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue had never played a Test together until the start of this series, despite all of them having been Test cricketers for a while. And if Ben Stokes had not retired, if Brydon Carse had not been injured, they probably would not have come together at all this summer.
And you've got to wonder why, especially if day two at Lord's is an example of the ceiling they can hit. Joe Root had clocked on to it at the end of first Test, when he said he thought this attack didn't understand how good they really were. They weren't alone Joe, given nobody had previously thought to put them together.
At one end here they pitched Archer and his pace at Pakistan. Imagine being Abdullah Shafique, walking in after Shan Masood's been dismissed, and Archer's at 91mph/146kph ten balls into his spell. Straight into a 92mph/148kph bouncer at the badge on his helmet. Wake-up call? Sure, if your wake-up call is being dunked with a bucket of ice-cold water, getting slapped and the alarm blaring through a maxed-out amplifier. Those weren't one-offs either: Archer averaged 90-plus mph over a five-over spell.
Meanwhile at the other end, Mr English Seamer. For long-suffering Pakistani fans, it was clear the moment Robinson was recalled at the start of this summer, that he would be the nightmare they would end this summer with, a blur of edges caught and pads struck. At his end, it was like being woken up by a feather tickling your nose, where you keep trying unsuccessfully to brush it aside, only to get frustrated, attempt to slap it away and in the process slap yourself awake.
And then to deal with the endearing weirdness of Tongue, or specifically, the weirdness of his bowling arm, coming beyond the perpendicular at release. It shouldn't work and there are periods when it doesn't, but the times it does are spectacular. Unusually for a human being, it is possible to sum him up in two numbers (beautifully proportional, as it happens) from his career before the start of this Test: an economy rate of 4.05 and a strike rate of 40.5. In dismissing Babar Azam, he delivered the key wicket of the innings though with the delivery before, the actual best ball of it.
Atkinson, in case you'd forgotten, is the high-pace metronome in this picture who's done all the things metronomes do but somehow has a single wicket across three innings in this series to show for it. They can't be long in coming though.
The facile comparison is that they are all quicker and stronger than Pakistan, but that's not the entire point, nor the. right comparison. They are stronger for their complementariness to each other's skills, all right-arm yes but all right-arm and very different. And they are capable of troubling better sides than the one they are currently facing. England are onto something here, even if they didn't know it until last week and even if they're not always capable of keeping hold of it.