England aim to reignite early summer fire but will be wary of South Africa

For those who prefer their international cricket played with a red ball rather than white, the past six weeks have required a great deal of patience. Ben Stokes has been among them, England’s Test captain itching to rekindle the magic that lit up the first half of the summer through those four rip-roaring victories against New Zealand and India.

To that end Stokes held a team meeting on Sunday when his players reconvened before the first Test against South Africa which starts on Wednesday; a refresher course intended to reaffirm the positive ethos that himself and the head coach, Brendon McCullum, are demanding.

“It’s the last time I will ever write on a whiteboard,” he joked after their final training session on Tuesday. “I needed to ask how to spell ‘environment’.”

Stokes may be unsure of the precise letters in the word but appears to have a firm grasp on its meaning. Players young and old are visibly relishing the new ethos of relaxed training sessions, aggressive play and selectorial loyalty under his leadership. Winning clearly helps here but their upbeat approach to each day and session has been an obvious point of difference from the angst of the previous regime’s final year.

There have of course been sliding‑doors moments along the way, be it Colin de Grandhomme’s no-ball at Lord’s, dropped catches at Trent Bridge or New Zealand’s failure to review an lbw shout against Jamie Overton at Headingley just five runs into a score of 97 that made up one half of a match-defining seventh‑wicket stand of 241. England have also profited from the particularly celestial form of Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root, the pair making hay against what was a substandard batch of Dukes balls.

But they have also wriggled out of some tight