England Left With Plenty To Ponder After India Series Defeat

England's comprehensive 4-1 Test series loss in India, culminating with an innings and 64-run defeat inside three days in Dharamsala last week, has left coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes with several difficult decisions. They will, however, have plenty of time to conduct a thorough review, with their side not in red-ball action again until facing the West Indies at Lord's in July. AFP Sport looks at some of the key issues now confronting England in Test cricket:

'Refining' Bazball

If self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, McCullum's post-series acceptance England will have to "refine" their approach was a start on the road to recovery.

'Baz' McCullum and Stokes won 10 of their first 11 Tests in charge but have since lost seven of the last dozen.

Few disagree with the basic premises behind 'Bazball', an approach grounded on the idea of trying to free players from the fear of failure and taking the attack to the opposition.

But there were times when England appeared to get carried away with their own rhetoric, notably when star batsman Joe Root was dismissed off a high-risk reverse scoop during a third-Test collapse in Rajkot.

It was notable that when Root reverted to type scores of 122 not out, 11, 26 and 84 duly followed.

England might still have been beaten adopting a more nuanced approach -- it is now 12 years since India lost a Test series on home soil -- but it was still telling when former New Zealand captain McCullum said: "We will allow the dust and hurt to settle a bit and then use that to make changes we need to ensure we are a better version of what we have started out as.

"We will have some time to reflect and come back bigger, stronger and more refined."

100 and out for Bairstow?

Writing