As most of the country enjoyed the final knockings of the spring’s rare hat-trick of bank holidays yesterday, England’s players arrived at Lord’s, the most monumental international summer since 2019’s World Cup-Ashes double-header now almost upon us. Brendon McCullum, the head coach, could hardly keep the smile off his face.
“I think there’s so much excitement about what’s coming and there’s so much uncertainty for everyone,” he said. “That’s where I think the real magic has the opportunity to come out.”
With all due respect to Ireland, who England meet in a one-off Test starting on Thursday, it was clearly the five against Australia that lie beyond to which McCullum was referring, no time wasted on the dull pretence that the next game is always the biggest one.
“Of course, people are talking about [the Ashes],” added McCullum. “It’s what you play the game for.”
The Ashes build-up, or rather, the build-up to the build-up, has not been ideal for England, who have injuries to key bowlers, form worries over key batters and a captain all-rounder who may only be fit enough to do half the job.
And yet there feels none of the sense of crisis that has accompanied similar headaches into previous series, concerns eased by some retained (and not unfounded) conviction that the normal rules do not apply to this freewheeling bunch.
Ollie Robinson and James Anderson will not play against Ireland, but McCullum used their absences to talk up English seam depth, with Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts and Mark Wood competing for three spots.
The New Zealander is not worried about Harry Brook, short of runs and time in the middle after being dropped at the IPL, nor Jonny Bairstow’s fitness to keep so soon after returning from his horrific broken leg. If Ben Stokes can bowl, “fantastic,” McCullum said, but if not “someone else will have to pick up the slack”.
The proof will be in the pudding, of course, starting at Edgbaston on June 16, but England’s confidence in the environment created over the past 12 months is palpable, the expectation that players are getting better at picking up where they left off each time this group reforms, or as McCullum puts it, “finding their seat on the bus”.
The sole defeat of last summer came after a six-week break between Tests, in the series opener against South Africa, after which Stokes and McCullum reinforced the messaging that had brought four wins out of four at the start of their reign.
On the first day of the subsequent series, away in Pakistan, England scored 506 runs.
The Ashes themselves are a different beast and remain a little more than a fortnight away. The Ashes summer, however, starts here.
