T20 series designed to give answers only posed questions for England

“I think the whole tour is one where the development of our game is actually more important than the series win,” Eoin Morgan said before a ball was bowled. “Our level of intensity and our performance is far more important than the result, and actually the result looks after itself.”

The results did not, in the end, look after themselves. England leave Barbados defeated 3-2 in the T20 series but having participated in some gripping sport in front of boisterous crowds. There is no shame in providing compelling entertainment and after a lopsided opening match, when on a poor pitch England were bowled out for 103 and West Indies won with ease, this series was tense throughout.

As well as featuring two well-matched sides its success was largely down to scheduling. This was just the 14th five-game bilateral T20 series and it demonstrated how they allow narratives to emerge and intensity to build in a way that is impossible when there are fewer matches (England’s T20 series against India and South Africa this summer will consist of three games, as will West Indies’ in India next month).

Once the dust has settled and minds dizzied by an unforgettable conclusion have refocused on the medium-term goal of October’s T20 World Cup, Morgan might struggle to identify the positives he hoped for. England’s captain missed three matches through injury, games where he would have hoped to reestablish his batting credentials, while players whose strengths are well known demonstrated those strengths – Adil Rashid in particular was outstanding – players with acknowledged weaknesses had those weaknesses exposed, and the ones we knew little about we learned little about.

The series was not a good one for England’s batters. Including Akeal