Gerard Whateley

Stokes is returning, as Brendan McCullum has said that at the Oval.

He'll be back and he'll be back as captain.

Clearly not all Americans.

It makes the cycle a bit hard to read.

There's one loudmouth and he's had far too much coverage.

But the idea that we're sort of...

So at the start, the captain breached the first attempts that had been made to make this a...

an uncouth backwater team.

We're in a phase where they don't all have to be 10-year players.

And we played like it.

Their own goal was a shocker.

They don't all have to be 50-test players.

The level of physicality was really unsophisticated.

professional setup.

There might be a bowler who's an 18-month bowler who plays seven tests, which are crucial at the right time.

And then there was clearly a lot of backgrounding around, hey, he's in a really fragile state.

We played like the team that they had ridiculed us as, which that was the bit that annoyed me the most.

So just go easy on the criticisms.

And the commentary sort of reflected that.

And now, despite all the level of concern, and Brendan McCullum spoke gravely about his concerns for Stokes, he's right to come straight back into the team and keep captaining.