Sir Alistair Cook

It's like, well,

Is Stokes going to be the captain in that Ashes series?

It sounds like he wants to be in his body.

Can they now plan properly with all the resources ECB have got, which is a huge resource, so they don't make the same basic errors as they did in that Ashes series?

And then you think, well, actually, they have had progress.

We're not going to see it in that first hour at Laws, I don't think, in that first test match.

I don't think you can judge it from there.

Rob, can I ask Chappers' question almost in a slightly different way?

Slightly rude.

In the method that England and Brendan particularly have favoured, at the start, back in 2022, did that favour a specific group of players that were experienced and thrived in that freedom and

Post-COVID, because they had a lot of test match experience to fall back on, James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Johnny Bairstow, Chris Wokes, Mark Wood, the list goes on.

Whereas when the team evolved in 2024 and you then brought in a lot of younger players, Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson, Shoaib Bashir, etc.,

Did they not necessarily know what to do with that freedom?

Did they need a bit more guidance?

Have they needed almost showing how to play test cricket where some of those experienced players didn't need that?

And is that where the environment has maybe just fallen short?

and why it sort of, it fell apart a little bit in Australia.

My name's Steve Bradnell, assistant manager at Royal Oak FC.

You may have seen me online going viral.

Viral sensation.