THE DAY TEST CRICKET CAME ROARING BACK IN FASHION

TEST cricket might just have found its saviours.

The game’s greatest format has been under attack from all angles by younger, sexier white-ball iterations. Too slow and boring for Millennials apparently, the threat of its marginalisation has long been a concern.

The historic Edgbaston run chase, on the back of the gripping series against New Zealand, has been a clarion call to a new generation. If this doesn’t pull them in, nothing will.

Test cricket slow and boring? Not the way England play it.

The Pied Piper effect only tends to work when a side is winning of course, but four victories in a row has proved this bold new outlook works. England’s fortunes have been turned on their head.

The reinvention of England under Brendon McCullum, below, has made ‘Baz-ball’ cricket’s buzzword and its ripple effect will be interesting to observe.

Other teams around the globe will be watching and wondering whether this bold approach can work for them and their Test cricket.

It helps if you can whistle up a player in the form of his life who can take a game by the scruff of the neck. Not everyone has a Jonny

Bairstow. But the explosion of T20 means most sides do have access exciting stroke-players. Some of those will be assessing what England are and fancying making their mark on cricket too. The England revolution has been invigorating, glorious, thrilling and wonderful but change can also be bewildering. For those raised on the traditional pre McCullum brand of five-day cricket, it goes against pretty much everything they have known. When Ben Stokes died by the sword, holing out at mid-off, in the Third Test against the Kiwis at Headingley, one exasperated Yorkshireman stood up from his seat and yelled at the departing England captain: ‘This is Test bloody cricket, Stokes.’ Yes, this is Test bloody cricket – just not as we know it. Strap in and enjoy the ride.