The curtain has drawn on Brendon McCullum’s fine first summer in charge of England’s Test team.
And the future is bright after a remarkable season which has seen new captain Ben Stokes lead his side to six wins in seven matches in a single summer for the first time since 2004.
No-one could have imagined England would have their most successful home summer for 18 years when their red-ball cricket was in the doldrums mere months ago.
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Chris Silverwood was sacked after the 4-0 humbling in last winter’s Ashes and captain Joe Root stepped down after the humiliating series defeat in the West Indies. It promised to be a bleak summer for an England fan.
The writing was on the wall for Root with his side enduring a sorry spell of just one win out of 17 Tests as he handed over the reigns after six years in the job. But it’s been a remarkable turnaround ever since McCullum was unveiled at Lord’s at the end of May. Little did we know the nonchalant way the former New Zealand captain strolled around the ‘Home of Cricket’ was a sign of the cavalier approach he would implement.
In those moments ‘BazBall’ was born. Stokes’ side whitewashed World Test Champions New Zealand 3-0, won the one-off rearranged Test against India to draw last year’s series 2-2 and came back from an embarrassing defeat in the first Test against South Africa to beat the Proteas 2-1.
Reflecting on his successes this summer, McCullum said: “It has been something quite special to be a part of. There are still big challenges in the next couple of years but for now it has been a pretty successful summer.
“I thought English cricket had a lot of talent but it's got a lot more than I thought. I knew these guys were good but they are a lot better than I thought. It is a very privileged position to be in to go and help these guys perform. It has been an absolute thrill.”
The appetite for Test cricket in this country is the strongest it has been since the famous 2005 Ashes series, which gripped the nation. And the thrilling fifth-day run chases will live long in the memory for anyone lucky enough to have a freebie ticket to witness them this year.
Jonny Bairstow, who missed the last Test of the summer after sustaining a “freak” leg injury on the golf course, was deservedly named as the player of the summer after smashing four centuries.
But it was the bowlers who stole the show against South Africa, in a rare series where neither side passed 200.
Evergreen Stuart Broad (29), who bypassed Glenn McGrath’s tally of 563 Test scalps in the final Test, and Jimmy Anderson (27) were the highest wicket takers of the summer.
It may seem like ‘deja vu’ after years of watching them torment visiting batters on those shores, but in March both were dropped for the series in the West Indies. Thankfully, the first big decision made by the McCullum-Stokes coach-captain combination was to reinstate their priceless veteran seamers.
Anderson, who turned 40 this summer, said: “Brendon’s come in and it just feels positive. There’s a positive atmosphere in that dressing room.
“The messages that he sends about going out there and entertaining, playing a certain brand of cricket, everyone’s bought into it.
“Some days it hasn’t come off and some days it has and the days it has have been spectacular. It’s changed the way a lot of players think about Test cricket and I think it will change the way a lot of the world will think about Test cricket.”
All eyes have quickly turned to next year’s Ashes series with England vying for revenge after their 4-0 defeat down under. But Stokes was quick to reiterate the importance of the upcoming tour to Pakistan in December and New Zealand in February before next summer’s hotly-anticipated showdown.
“You add Jofra [Archer] and Woody [Mark Wood] into the mix being fully fit and it’s scary to think of where things could go, especially with the ball,” admitted Stokes. “The batters we’ve got coming through and things like that, it’s a very high ceiling.”
Stokes’ mantra is about entertaining the paying public, and boy have they been entertained! More of the same please, folks.
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