The popular belief in sport is that losers learn more about themselves from defeats than victories.
And make no mistake, the England cricket team has returned from the subcontinent a big bunch of losers. For the first time in almost 150 years of Test cricket, England lost a three match series after winning the opening game.
Head coach Brendon McCullum has been lauded for his approach and results since taking charge of the red ball side in 2022. The same goes for captain Ben Stokes.
But nothing is quite as fickle as top level sport. So McCullum and Stokes have to take criticism on the chin when the flak flies.
Admitting weakness is now regarded as a strength. But a stubborn Stokes did the exact opposite when claiming his team still contained the ‘best top six batsmen in the country’.
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This would be six blokes who were part of a side bowled out for just 112 on the third morning of the deciding Test in Pakistan. Six blokes who have been part of a team dismissed inside 38 overs in three of their last four Tests.
If this is the best we’ve got, then heaven help us in the next series in New Zealand. Let alone the next Ashes series Down Under in the winter of 2025.
More than half of all England’s runs in the entire Pakistan series came in the first innings of the opening Test. It feels like a lifetime ago now, but that was on a docile pitch when England racked up 823 before declaring.
But let’s be honest, someone could have batted blindfolded on that pitch and still scored runs. Then spin was introduced in the next two Tests, and Pakistan made England look like clueless amateurs.
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What this England side also appears to be is one dimensional. McCullum’s men have just revealed to the rest of the world their greatest vulnerabilities.
The two series defeats England have suffered under McCullum have both come on the subcontinent. England don’t travel to that part of the world again until 2027.
McCullum and Stokes appear to hold Bazball in the same regard as some people do the Bible. No other script teachings come close.
And it might be that Bazball continues to reap huge rewards if surfaces are suited to it. Keep calm and carry on, lads.
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But if England want to conquer the world, they have to be more willing to learn, improve and be better equipped to cope in all conditions, instead of just one. Do McCullum and Stokes want to win back the Ashes above all else?
Maybe they do, because that series could well define McCullum’s time in charge. But good luck with that, because to bring home the Urn, the best team on the planet will have to be beaten on their own soil. And the last time England won the Ashes in Australia was back in 2011.
While the reason the Aussies remain no.1 in the Test rankings is because they continue to set standards all around the world that everyone else should follow and be educated by. However exciting Bazball can be, it is also flawed.
But the biggest challenge English cricket now has is actually getting the blokes so invested in it to accept this as the truth.