Roy must not view No4 as a free pass,

Move down order will work only if batsman can follow Stokes’ lead and play with real control and focus to cement his Test future England can be awful or brilliant, and there is little in between

Take out the emotion of Headingley and analyse the first three Test matches and there is only one conclusion to draw: Australia have been better than England. Ben Stokes will be remembered for ever for that one innings, regardless of what happens over the next two weeks, but it is only 1-1 in the series and England have to win.

They cannot have an individual produce that kind of magic and

then not go on to repay him by winning the series. It has to be a collective effort and, so far in this series, England have been unable to do that.

We have individuals who excel, but we have not seen a team performance in Test cricket this summer. The Ashes will be won by the team who can play as a unit over the next two weeks and not carried by the brilliance of one or two men.

We are watching two Test teams with so much skill and talent, but lots of problems that all stem from their batting.

England’s batting has been inconsistent for four years. You cannot keep making the same mental errors. Let’s hope they have learnt from the second innings at Headingley and now realise that is how you bat in Test cricket. Let’s see if they can do it again this week in Manchester.

The one benefit of England being an infuriating team is it makes them exciting to watch. I have no idea what will happen in this Test when they bat. They could be 80 all out or 320 for four. They can be awful or brilliant on any given day, and there is usually little in between.

If Stokes had been given out lbw at Headingley then we would have had changes this week. That is how close two or three of these guys were to being dropped. The selectors would have taken action because their positions would have been under threat.

By moving Jason Roy down the order, England are protecting him and giving him the best chance of making a Test career.

Joe Denly has to take every opportunity that comes his way at the age of 33, but he cannot be happy about moving up to protect Roy after scoring a gutsy fifty last week at No4.

He has to view this as his chance to score a hundred and book his winter in the Test team.

Nobody has grabbed the opener’s position. Rory Burns scored a good hundred on a slow wicket at Edgbaston, but has been bounced out since, so is suddenly under pressure.

Roy can succeed at four if he plays with the control and focus he showed during the first 28 runs he made in the second innings at Edgbaston before having a brain fade against Nathan Lyon.

But if he plays like he did at Lord’s and Headingley he is not going to succeed, because you cannot take those risks in Test cricket and survive against quality attacks. You cannot just throw your hands at the ball. He has to have more balance on the front foot and he has to leave the ball. He has to give himself a chance to get set.

If he does, then we know he has the gifts to take on the opposition. We all thought he had the game for Test cricket and could give England something different at the top of the order, but opening did not work. Now he has dropped down into the engine room in the middle order, where there are a lot of players who bat like him, so he has to stand out by playing with a bit of responsibility.

He has to take a leaf out of Stokes’s book. Ben has always been aggressive, but he has learnt to adapt to all facets of the game, so he can now bat patiently and with control, but also attack. He played patiently for hours at Headingley, but then accelerated and batted in the modern way by hitting fours and sixes when he needed to.

Can Roy do the same? Can he bat patiently and against his natural mindset for the good of the team