2 months ago
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Here we go: 10 Tests against the world’s two most powerful cricket nations, 10 Tests that will define the legacy of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, and the legitimacy of Bazball. No pressure, guys, but you’re about to embark on the most important seven months of your careers.
Between Friday’s series opener against India at Headingley and the Ashes finale at Sydney in January, legends will be written, pedestals reconfigured and pantheons polished. The hope is they will mainly be English.
Win both series, and Stokes — already in possession of the best victory percentage among major England captains since Douglas Jardine — will go down as their greatest leader.
Win against India but lose in Australia, and the jury will remain out. Lose both, and the verdict will be damning. It would be hard, then, to imagine McCullum seeing out his contract until 2027. The stakes really are that high.
And while Stokes did his best on the eve of the first of two seismic five-match series to play down the significance of it all, that felt like a characteristic attempt to shield his team from the outside noise that England regard as so unhelpful. But this is big — and he knows it.
Despite criticism of the Bazballers, the Test team’s fortunes have been transformed since he and McCullum joined forces three years ago.
England's make-or-break year begins in earnest on Friday in the first Test against India
The tourists are beginning a new era of their own under new red-ball captain Shubman Gill
The hosts' Test fortunes have been transformed under the combined stewardship of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum
Even excluding one-off wins against Ireland and Zimbabwe, they have won six series out of 10 and drawn two, including the 2023 Ashes when Manchester rain deprived them of the chance to beat Australia.
It is a strong record that, for some, is overshadowed by the brainfades and meltdowns — enforcing the follow-on against New Zealand at Wellington in 2023, the hook-happy collapse against Australia at Lord’s later that year after off-spinner Nathan Lyon had hobbled off, Joe Root’s reverse-ramp against Jasprit Bumrah at Rajkot, the general ineptitude against Pakistan’s spinners over the winter.
But Stokes, determined to live in the present, refuses to indulge perspectives involving the future or the past.
‘There’s always a different buzz coming up against India and Australia,’ he said. ‘We know what these series mean away from the dressing room. We do understand that. But I can only control what I can control.
‘I obviously want results to go our way. But defining a career as England captain isn’t something I sit there and think about. Because if that’s what I’m really bothered about, then in my opinion it’s just completely and utterly selfish — and that ain’t me.’
The Ashes don’t begin until November 21 in Perth, but English cricket’s obsession with beating Australia means they will recur as a subplot during a gruelling six-and-a-half-week series against India, and Stokes is wise to keep a lid on the hype.
Because if England don’t beat an India side who have lost six of their last eight Tests, slipped to fourth in the rankings and are led by a rookie 25-year-old captain in Shubman Gill, then their year could unravel horribly.
Asked, instead, whether England might try to ‘scramble’ Gill’s mind with the aggressive style that has brought them a run-rate of 4.63 in the Bazball era — more than a run an over clear of anyone else — Stokes replied: ‘I don’t know. Hopefully we find ourselves in a position where he might scramble his own mind.’
England have won six of their 10 series under Stokes excluding one-off wins over Ireland and Zimbabwe
In contrast, India come into the Test at Headingley having lost six of their last eight matches
England’s preference for focusing on their own game, however, will be tested to the full by the unique brilliance of Bumrah, who may play only three Tests as India monitor the state of his back but could play four if circumstances dictate.
He took 19 wickets at 16 apiece when the sides last met, in India early last year, and has dismissed Root nine times.
His gentle trot to the wicket belies a wickedly fast arm action, and his unusual body shape means he delivers the ball from about 19 yards.
Against Australia over the winter, he took 32 wickets at 13, a hall-of-fame effort in a losing cause. And while Bumrah tops the ICC rankings, the highest-placed England bowler in this Test — with Gus Atkinson, in 13th, nursing a hamstring tweak — will be Chris Woakes, who is 20th. Next is Brydon Carse, in 40th.
‘Everyone will say that going out and facing someone with a quirky, awkward action can take you a couple of balls to get used to everything, with your timings and trigger,’ said Stokes. ‘It’s not a traditional action that you see in a bowling manual.’
As for the predictable choice at No 3 of Ollie Pope, fresh from a big hundred against Zimbabwe, over Jacob Bethell, Stokes swatted aside the suggestion it counted as a ‘big selection’.
He added: ‘It would be remarkable to choose someone else if their last knock was 171, and that’s pretty much all I need to say on that.’
Above all, England will seek to finesse the style that has brought them 23 wins, 12 defeats and that Manchester draw since Stokes took over in 2022.
India will be spear-headed in the attack by Jasprit Bumrah, who took Joe Root's wicket nine times when the two last met early last year
Ollie Pope's selection at No 3 is a predictable decision despite the emergence of Jacob Bethell
England's highest-placed Test bowler in the ICC rankings on Friday will be Chris Woakes (40th)
Results against India and Australia have a higher currency than any others. And much though Stokes dislikes the set-up of the World Test Championship, he knows England will have to finish above at least one of them if they are to qualify for their first final, in 2027.
‘It’s about adapting better when we’re up against the wall,’ he said. ‘When those moments come in the series, and they no doubt will, it’s about identifying them a lot quicker, gritting our teeth and asking ourselves what is it we need to do to wrestle the momentum back.
‘When we are on top of teams, we are very good, but where we maybe have let ourselves down over the last three years is when we have been behind the game.’
That admission alone feels like progress. But it has been said that every Test match England play feels like a referendum on Bazball, and not until the votes are finally counted in January will we know where we stand.
