McCullum may see himself in Crawley but struggling in spotlight is tough place to be

After the hammering England took against a well organised and talented South Africa side it would be easy to jump on the bandwagon and pour criticism on the players and their approach. Personally I commend Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes for challenging convention since taking over as coach and captain of the Test team, which desperately needed a shot in the arm.

They have said from the start that it will be an up and down ride, that bumps in the road like last week’s defeat to South Africa are part of the process. However, there are clearly some legitimate questions and areas of discussion.

It would seem that England’s coach and captain have concluded that for the modern player the traditional qualities associated with Test batting – staying in for long periods, impeccable concentration, carefully building an innings – are no longer widely held skills, and that in asking them to approach things in a different way they are playing to their strengths. I am trying to be open-minded. At Lord’s last week they seemed determined to apply the same ultra-aggressive approach no matter the conditions, the opponents or the match situation, and that does go against the historical approach to Test-match batting. With this kind of one-size-fits-all approach you end up with a fast food version of Test cricket, stripped of many of its ingredients and much of its nutritional value.

The fact remains that the best batters in the world are Joe Root, Kane Williamson, Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, players who are consistent, who can assess conditions and adapt. Root is always looking to score, has always played in a very busy fashion, but it’s calculated and done with a very high level of skill. That has to be the ideal. Stokes talks about