Clarity of purpose has finally given players freedom to succeed

The biggest plus for England has been Matty Potts. Everything about him looks the real deal

England’s attitude and belief have changed. The captain and coach have given the players settled positions and been very clear that they want everyone to be positive and move the games forward quickly.

As soon as he was appointed, Ben Stokes was clear about what he wanted. He was batting six, Jonny Bairstow ahead of him at five, Jack Leach was playing, Stuart Broad and James Anderson were back and Ollie Pope would be at three.

Players respond to clear instructions, but all have to make sure they do not confuse attacking batting with going at it gung ho. In the first innings at Headingley, Stokes ran down and swatted his third ball from the seamer for six. He kept on that swashbuckling attack until he mistimed one to mid-off.

That was a waste of his talent because he is better than that. It is like when Bairstow tried to whack every ball and got out at Lord’s. Bairstow has played two different, outstanding matchwinning centuries. One to win the game at Trent Bridge, and one at Headingley to get England out of trouble and into a position to win.

Both innings were very different from Lord’s, where he went straight from the Indian Premier League without any proper cricket, and flashed and wafted at every ball. Let’s put Lord’s down as an aberration and park it.

With time to think about it, he came in at Nottingham and Leeds and used his common sense. Even when playing carefully, his natural instinct is to keep the scoreboard ticking over, so he does not need to over-attack. Runs come naturally for him and once he gets in, his instinct and power take over and he dominates all the bowling. He was brilliant in both innings.

The biggest plus for England has been Matty Potts. Everything about him looks the real deal. He is bustling, energetic and puts a lot of balls in the corridor of uncertainty on a fullish length to tempt batsmen into driving.

He has nice pace, and how refreshing to see a young man who looks as if he really enjoys fast bowling. Stay fit, and he has a nice career ahead of him.

I wrote in Telegraph Sport some time ago that if England believe Leach is their best spinner they should play him consistently and bowl him. That is all he needed – to bowl rather than being in and out of the team.

Just because he took 10 wickets, he has not suddenly become a world-beater. He is not doing anything differently. But, like all spinners, the more he bowls, the better chance he has to find his rhythm, accuracy and confidence.

All a captain can do is get the best out of each of his players and Stokes has got the best out of him.

Jamie Overton should not fret about not taking many wickets or not causing the opposition too many problems at Headingley.

Two for 146 in 37 overs does not sound great, but a lot of fast bowlers have found it very difficult at Headingley when the pitch is dry and straw-coloured.

Headingley is either seamer friendly with juice in the pitch and overcast skies or, if it is sunny before and during the Test, it is a batting surface with no great pace. The harder you bang the ball in, the more the pitch sucks the life out of the ball. Forget his figures, his batting, along with Bairstow, was a big factor in getting England back to parity and then winning.

The biggest disappointment is Zak Crawley. I have seen no improvement in his judgment of length or a tighter defence, and his patience is non-existent.

He does not understand that when facing the new ball, it is crucial to have a good defence. Nobody wants him to block or be defensive, but he needs to be a better judge of what to leave, what to hit and play closer to his pad and not leave a big gap like the first innings of the third Test.

I get the impression he is batting as if playing Twenty20 or baseball, trying to hit every ball for a home run. In more than 30 years, only a handful of opening batsmen have been successful in Test cricket playing like that. So far, he is not as good as Sanath Jayasuriya, Matthew Hayden or Michael Slater.

Look at the second innings, a very wide ball that was short of a length, not there for driving, yet he went after it and mistimed to cover.

If or when he is lucky enough to get past the new ball, he will thrill us because he can be devastating against the old ball.

Crawley has gorgeous timing and a wide array of strokes. But one splendid knock and many failures is going to get him the sack. He is lucky that there are no obvious alternatives and England will not want to change a winning team.

With all that talent, it will be tragic if he wastes it because he just does not learn from his mistakes.