Scyld Berry

Back in November 2019, at the start of their Test tour of New Zealand, England trialled two very tall young batsmen, and they both made three figures in the warm-up match on their England debuts.

Zak Crawley batted as if he had given up all hope of retaining his England place. Kent needed 261 to win, for an important victory to boost their morale – and to his 21st ball he tried a shot that many England openers would never have attempted in their whole career.

Matt Henry averages 18 in his last 15 Tests, is ranked third in the world and will be backed up by fast, accurate and impressive team-mates

Losing the wild goose chase that was England's last Ashes campaign was bad enough.

England wrapped up a 115-run victory over New Zealand before lunch on day four of the first test at Lord's, marking a positive start to its Bazball reset.

After a faintly farcical Lord's Test and a week of scandal, England needed a day of hard-fought Test cricket to snap them back to reality.

It is a remarkable statistic, easily explained. Jacob Bethell averages 8.75 in the first innings of Tests against 72.5 in his second innings.

It did not take long for the harsh reality of the England captaincy to come back and bite Joe Root.

Remember when England were the masters of the Test run chase? The aura has dimmed a lot since those early, innocent days of the Bazballers and even

England started well in the second Test at the Oval, with three Test debutants in their side, before steadily unravelling.