Amidst a flurry of hugs and high-fives for Ben Stokes during the tail end of the third Test in Nottingham, an unsettling reality loomed—England was on the verge of suffering one of their most significant defeats in history.
It’s crucial to acknowledge New Zealand’s remarkable victory, despite missing key players like Glenn Phillips, the standout batsman from the first two Tests, and Matt Henry, who had climbed to the top of the ICC bowling rankings after taking 11 wickets at the Oval. The Kiwis managed to adapt to these challenges effectively, unlike their English counterparts.
Defeats on home soil have been rare for England, making this outcome all the more notable. This marked only the sixth instance in their 149-year history as a Test cricket nation—and the first in the 21st century—where England lost after clinching the series opener.
A captain’s legacy extends beyond victories to the health he leaves his team in, and few would dispute that Stokes has elevated England’s standing. Upon succeeding Joe Root in 2022, Stokes inherited a team that had won just once in the preceding 17 matches. Although they have since improved to two wins out of ten, these victories came on unpredictable surfaces at Melbourne and Lord’s.
However, England currently finds itself in a less favorable position compared to early in the Bazball era. At that time, the team had decisively swept New Zealand, chased down formidable targets between 277 and 299, set a national record with a 378-run chase against India at Edgbaston, rallied to beat South Africa, and become the first team to achieve a 3-0 series win in Pakistan, beginning with an extraordinary 500 runs in a single day at Rawalpindi.
It remains an indictment of the conservatism that has always blighted English cricket that some were already turning against them even as they rewrote the record books.
As the great and the good lined up to high-five Ben Stokes at the end of the third Test, it felt almost rude to point out that England had suffered one of the worst defeats in their history.
England had done the impossible under Stokes’ early leadership, including a national-record chase of 378 to beat India at Edgbaston in 2022
They became the first visiting team ever to win 3-0 in Pakistan with a string of epic displays led by Stokes’ fantastic captaincy
Yet from that high point the successes grew fewer and further between. Starting with the careless one-run defeat by New Zealand at Wellington in February 2023, England have won 17 Tests and lost 19. In four marquee series against Australia and India, the ratio gets worse: six wins, 12 losses.
Between 2005 and 2015, England won four successive home Ashes. Between 2011 and 2018, their home record against India was 11 wins and two defeats. On both counts, England under Stokes went backwards.
It felt symbolic, too, that their final run chase under his leadership, a near-impossible 373 on an increasingly capricious Trent Bridge pitch, should begin with a bit of uber-Bazball. Promoting himself to open because England felt they needed quick runs against the new ball before the old ball became hard to manoeuvre, Stokes set the tone for the kind of hour his team were supposed to have left behind.
For a side still trying to reconnect with the public after the Ashes, their mad thrash to 103 for four off 15 overs felt as tin-eared as McCullum’s suggestion after losing the second Test at Brisbane that England had over-trained. Both scenarios contained a grain of truth, but it was not what the public wanted to hear.
The ECB’s rationale for keeping McCullum has been his willingness to ‘adapt and evolve’ since Australia, yet Harry Brook’s nine-ball 21 in particular emitted vibes so carefree it was as if we were back in the early days of Bazball, when Stokes overdid the aggression to ensure his team-mates got the message. His performance looked less like evolution than the dying splutters of a revolution in which most others had already waved the white flag.
When Stokes took over four years ago, he had at his disposal some major players: Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Jonny Bairstow, plus a fresh-faced Brook and, in Root, an ex-captain freed from the burden of leadership.
But the team England fielded for the second Test against New Zealand at the Oval, which included five players with a combined total of two caps, was not just a consequence of the chaos wrought by the Rex Rooms saga: it was a worrying reflection of county cricket’s failure to top up the talent pool. McCullum enjoyed the newcomers’ enthusiasm, but was startled by their naivety.
And it is at this delicate moment in the team’s narrative that Stokes has called it a day.
But the wheels came off in the final few years, unable to beat Australia or India at home as England usually have done this century
England stopped growing under Stokes’ leadership, as if the giant shadow he cast blocked out the light, and they have been left without an identity only 12 months before the next Ashes
| Year | Tests | Won | Drawn | Lost | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 90.0 |
| 2023 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 50.0 |
| 2024 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 46.2 |
| 2025 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 44.4 |
| 2026 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 33.3 |
That he’s had enough is indisputable. There also can be no doubting his work ethic or his passion or the memories he has created for a generation of fans. He will go down as one of England’s most significant cricketers.
But England stopped growing under his leadership, as if the giant shadow he cast blocked out the light, and they have been left without an identity only 12 months before the next Ashes.
The ECB believe there is no rush to appoint his successor, with the first Test against Pakistan not starting until August 19. But the fact that, after Monday’s defeat, McCullum felt unable to commit to Brook, the official vice-captain, did not speak volumes for England’s succession planning. Suddenly, Root is back in the mix, which would represent a funny kind of progress.
England are in a rare old mess, though also a familiar one. Even without Stokes, whatever happens next will be compelling.