Stokes and McCullum need strong start to year that could define Bazball

The way the cricket calendar is carved up sounds a bit absurd; a kind of speed-dating event for the chief executives and chairs of the full-member nations that is hosted every four years by the International Cricket Council. Not that the ICC – more events company than governing body – gets involved. Its officials apparently have to leave the room before the bigwigs start schmoozing at the tables and operations types plumb the fixtures into their spreadsheets.

The men’s future tours programme emerged from one of these opaque lock-ins in 2022 and even at the time England’s winter of 2024-25 stuck out as slightly unimaginative. Test tours of Pakistan and New Zealand were scheduled for the second winter in two years, the latter for the third time in five. This despite England’s entire four-year block featuring no Tests in Sri Lanka or the West Indies and the gap between Tests in South Africa – a third favourite of their travelling supporters – set to be seven years when they return in late 2026.

Given the number of moving parts – the alliances and the schisms, a free-for-all process and the World Test Championship (WTC) – hoping for a sensible, even spread was probably optimistic. In fairness, even with the repetition, and England being out of the running for next year’s WTC final at Lord’s, this winter is still an intriguing one. The 2-1 loss in Pakistan in October, where they won 3-0 two years ago, rocked the good ship Bazball, such that the three-Test series that starts in Christchurch on Thursday feels pretty important.

Under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, captain and head coach, England have enjoyed an upturn of fortunes compared with the bleak 18 months that came before. Twenty wins and 11 defeats from 32 Tests is the second-best ratio behind Australia in this time and their pedal-to-the-metal cricket – the fortunes of which have lurched wildly – has been compelling to watch.

View image in fullscreen Brydon Carse impressed again in England’s warmup game after his strong debut series in Pakistan. Photograph: KM Chaudary/AP

Equally, they have won seven, lost seven in the past 12 months and have not won an away series since Pakistan in late 2022. That drawn home Ashes in 2023 was an opportunity missed, while New Zealand’s recent 3-0 triumph in India has made England’s 4-1 defeat there look a touch worse. Grumbles about their style grew stronger in Pakistan; a sense they are wedded to all-out aggression and are inflexible when the pitch is not flat. Even with McCullum’s contract now extended to 2027 and soon to incorporate the white-ball teams, next year – India at home and an away Ashes series – will probably define how the project is viewed overall.

To that end, England could do with a strong showing against the team they know better than most (and who could make that WTC final with a clean sweep). This will be the seventh time they have met for Test cricket in the past 10 years. Not that England’s familiarity with New Zealand has helped, having not won a series here since 2008; the tour when Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad struck up their record-breaking relationship to claim a 2-1 win from 1-0 down.

The post-Anderson and Broad attack blew off the last dregs of jet-lag in postcard perfect Queenstown on Saturday, with Chris Woakes (three for 25), Gus Atkinson (three for 15) and Brydon Carse (four for 48) starting a two-day warm-up match by rolling an inexperienced Prime Minister’s XI for 136. They look the likeliest seamers for the first Test – Matt Potts and Olly Stone are the others on tour – with Shoaib Bashir likely to be first-choice spinner, given Jack Leach was running drinks. In reply, England made 249 all out, with Zak Crawley (94) looking in particularly good touch.

England were a bit loose after reaching 170 for two but it was more practice out in the middle than a match per se. As prop planes landed on the neighbouring airstrip, Stokes preferred to watch from the sidelines after doing his work before play began.

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Fitness was not the reason for sitting it out – he simply does not rate warm-up cricket – but his ability to play a full role as an all-rounder will again be key to England’s balance. After very little form on his return from a hamstring injury in Pakistan and a weirdly passive match tactically during the deciding Test in Rawalpindi – something perhaps explained in part by the stress of his family’s traumatic burglary back home – Stokes will be doubly keen to make an impact.

Another is Jordan Cox who, with Jamie Smith absent for parental leave, is inked in for a Test debut behind the stumps next week. Fresh from the recent Caribbean white-ball tour – and, like Smith, not the first-choice wicketkeeper for his county, Essex – the 24-year-old’s first outing behind the stumps for 15 months was tidy but he was out for 11 attempting a wild hoick. The intensity will be far greater at Hagley Oval, even if it will hardly be Galatasaray away.

Indeed, 18 months on from their last encounter – the one-run win for New Zealand in Wellington that meant the series ended 1-1 – another hard-fought but friendly affair looks on the cards; the kind that will probably lead their bigwigs to make another beeline for each other when the speed-dating tables next come out.

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