Batting coach Marcus Trescothick has said he wishes England "were going into the Ashes next week", with Ben Stokes' side enjoying great success playing a new positive and aggressive brand of Test cricket that has been dubbed 'Bazball' after new coach Brendon McCullum.
Since McCullum and Stokes took over, they have transformed England from a team that had won just one of their last 17 Test matches into one that has now won seven in eight. They played fearless cricket this summer against New Zealand, India and South Africa, before recording one of their greatest wins against Pakistan in the first Test in Rawalpindi.
England broke all kinds of records as they scored 657 runs at 6.5 an over in the first innings and then 264 at 7.36 in the second before boldly declaring. Perhaps most impressively, though, they managed to prise out 20 wickets on what was an incredibly lifeless pitch.
