The only brand of cricket fans want is a winning one

THERE’S been plenty of talk in the build-up to this first Test about the brand of cricket England want to play under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. We’ve all seen the headlines. For me, there’s only one brand the fans are interested in and that’s a winning one.

Test cricket isn’t like the white-ball game, where you can come in — like Eoin Morgan did seven years ago — and tell the batters to go hell for leather for 50 overs. It’s not as simple as that. Conditions on day one will differ from conditions on day five. You have to adapt.

The good news is Stokes and McCullum understand that. Stokes, don’t forget, was on two from 66 balls during that Headingley innings against Australia in 2019. McCullum once made a triple-hundred in 13 hours. So, yes, while they both have aggressive mindsets, they instinctively understand that Test cricket doesn’t fit quite so easily into a template.

And if England are going to do something about their record of one win in 17 Tests, they’ll need to address the reasons behind that sequence.

Chief among them is a top order that constantly finds itself 20 for two, with Joe Root out in the middle while the ball is still new. How do we stop getting into those situations?

Zak Crawley has to look at his game. Sure, we don’t want three blockers going nowhere, and Crawley does bring that aggressive edge. But he has to realise that flashing and driving hard at the Dukes ball in England will leave him vulnerable. He may have to look at that shot and make the bowlers come to him, so he can get his leg-side shots away.

Then there’s Ollie Pope at No 3, where he’s not batted before. The best No3s convey a sense of calm, but what we saw from Pope during the Ashes was all a bit frenetic. He’s got huge talent, but England need him to show composure to go with it. And what about the return of Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson? If the ball’s doing a bit, can you persuade them to bowl a more attacking length? Broad has been doing that more of late, which is why I was so surprised he was left out of the West Indies tour. Why have England been taking so many wickets with no-balls, and how are they practising in the nets? And when the bowlers do find the edge, why do the cordon drop so many catches? These are the details I’m talking about — and this is what wins you Test matches, not headlines about positive cricket. I’m confident Stokes and McCullum will get things right, and I’m glad to hear they’re not great fans of rotation. They’ll pick the best team for the game in front of them, which is as it should be. And that will allow Rob Key (left), the director of cricket, to plan behind the scenes — to work out why our fast bowlers keep getting injured, for example, or decide who our second spinner is and why Matt Parkinson keeps getting dragged round the world if he’s never going to get a game. Everyone needs to be working together and focusing on the details they need to get right. Headlines are one thing, but the task of turning England’s Test fortunes around starts on the field at Lord’s this morning.