Less than a year ago, Joe Root stood on the edge of an Australian outfield, that all-too familiar look of exhaustion on the face of an England captain Down Under, and insisted that the beaten players in his squad who had just been hammered to the brink of another Ashes whitewash were the best this country could muster.
It was a troubling assessment for all sorts of reasons: chiefly, the fact that he was probably right.
