Phil Walker

It all funnels towards next year, just as it all funneled towards your last summer.

It's a referendum every two years on your cricket and our cricket, and that's just how it is.

And that's not to denigrate the stuff that goes in the gaps, but...

It's all about next year.

And we can't know yet if McCullum and Stokes are going to get this chance to waltz off into the sunset having had the last laugh.

We don't know.

There's a large chunk of people, certainly a section of people in this country, who want to see them fall this summer because it will validate their view of the team.

They want to see them collapse.

They want to see it implode in on itself because then it will validate how they felt about the England side in the ashes and it will validate how they sense this team is.

So there's quite a few people lining up, ready, you know, ready with the pot shots.

And only a defeat will truly exercise them.

It seems like a long time ago.

I remember us three chatted around 2022, wasn't it?

When, as you say, Bairstow was...

You know, we're strumming quick hundreds in the final session and England were chasing down mad totals almost routinely at that point.

And we all drank the Kool-Aid.

Even you two did a little bit.

And I remember we dared to have an earnest conversation about what meant for Test cricket and what this meant.

like an epoch moment for the game and how teams will now start to ape it and the game's never been more watchable and England are pushing the line and doing it with a smile and trying to do good things for the game at large and all the rest of it.

And all that sounded great back then.