Stokes and McCullum inspire bowling attack to transform England

There were some dreamy-looking images of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, England’s inner circle, the bro-tocracy, during the South Africa Test series. At Old Trafford there was the balcony tableau after Stokes’s hundred, coach and captain bathed in August sunshine, a collage of shades, beards, guns, tattoo-sleeves, giving off an alpha energy so powerful it may have been responsible for fusing part of the pavilion circuit.

At the Oval there were shots of the pair of them lounging together on the turf Baz-Head Revisited-style, Sebastian and Charles in Cinch-branded lycra tracksuits.

Genuine elite sporting friendships are rare. More often these are forged out of necessity, external pressures and the illusion of team spirit generated by victory. But Stokes and McCullum’s relationship really does seem to be a founded in mutual affection, along with a fertile tessellation of ideas and intentions. This might sound crass and speculative, but, then, the best working relationships can often be comfortingly straightforward.

Stokes lost his Kiwi dad last year. For now, while the sun shines, he really does seem to have found a Kiwi big brother.

Either way the people in charge of the England men’s red ball team look happy. Not only is this contagious, good for business, and great TV product, but it hasn’t been possible to say that for quite some time. And this was an undeniably vital summer of Test cricket.

How did they do it? From one win in seventeen, to six in seven. From emotional exhaustion to the summer of Baz-love. Most attention will focus on the batting, if only because it is the easiest thing. Fourth innings chases, the shimmy down the pitch to the seaming ball, Jonny Bairstow setting about world class bowlers like a man