Phil Walker

Can't keep throwing haymakers.

Can't keep trying to knock them out.

Got to trust our jab.

And Stokes started saying this, of course, across the winter.

Stokes, I thought, was very astute, actually, after the Brisbane game, and definitely the penny had dropped for him.

And I think there is more that binds the two of them together than separates them, but there's certainly been some shifting in attitude, I think, and understanding of their philosophy in the last few months.

In amongst it all, because it's so stark when you lose to Australia like that,

And all of the good things and all of the positive things that did, no doubt, throw up remarkable results.

You went to Pakistan.

Now, perhaps in reflection, that's not that big a deal these days.

But you went to Pakistan and won three.

New England never win in Pakistan.

Admittedly, then they lost to one, managed to balls that one up.

But they went to New Zealand and won the series.

England don't really do that either, and they won a lot of test matches at home, as we know.

The 2023 Ashes remains the great mystery, really, the enigma of the whole Stokes-McCullen era, because 2-2 could have been 3-2, but also they could have been 3-0 down, you know, if Mark Wood and Chris Wokes hadn't got it done at Stokes.

So it's the classic ifs and buts series, and famously it rained for two days at Old Trafford, but whatever.

The result remains the same.

And in the end, all of the nuances of all of this, it gets lost and you just get given the score.

And we couldn't beat Australia at home, and we stunk the place out when we went out there.