What a difference a year makes. If you cast your mind back to England's final Test match in 2021, they were meekly surrendering the Ashes to Australia inside three days at the MCG as Pat Cummins' side took an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series with two games to spare.
England were utterly humiliated, bowled out for just 68 in their second innings as debutant Scott Boland ran riot with the quite frankly ridiculous figures of 6-7 ensuring England ended the year as a record-breakingly bad team.
In 2021, they suffered more defeats than any other side in the history of Test cricket with nine, were dismissed for less than 150 a record eight times and scored more than 400 in an innings just once. While Joe Root enjoyed a stunning run of form with the bat, scoring the third most runs in a calendar year ever with 1,708, he stood alone for England.
Their next highest scorer was Rory Burns with 530 runs, while extras was third with 412. England also equalled their own record for the most ducks in a calendar year with 54, with their openers responsible for 14 of them.
That's a tally made all the more remarkable when you consider that England openers only recorded 27 ducks in the preceding ten years of Test cricket. And this year, England have proceeded to break even more records.
But ever since the appointments of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum as the new coach and captain, they have been of a much more positive nature. The Ashes humiliation was swiftly followed by the axing of head coach Chris Silverwood, assistant coach Graham Thorpe and director of cricket Ashley Giles.
James Anderson and Stuart Broad were then controversially dropped for England's tour of the West Indies in March and, after they fell to another series defeat, beleaguered skipper Root decided to step down as captain. Just two days later, Rob Key left the relative comfort of a punditry gig with Sky to replace Giles and he has overseen a remarkable transformation of England's Test team.
After confirming the shock appointment of McCullum as England's Test coach, Key told fans to "buckle up and get ready for the ride". And what a ride it has been. Under Stokes and McCullum, England have won nine out of their ten Tests, recording thumping victories over New Zealand, India, South Africa and Pakistan.
They have scored their highest number of centuries in a calendar year with 22, hit more sixes in a calendar year than any team in Test history with 89 and become the first side to ever whitewash Pakistan in Pakistan. The fear of failure has been removed from England's setup, with Stokes and McCullum encouraging a more positive and aggressive approach.
And it was an approach they embraced from day one, winning their first four Tests by successfully chasing down more than 250. Their successful chase of 378 to beat India at Edgbaston by seven wickets was England's highest ever.
They then proceeded to create history with their 3-0 series win in Pakistan, breaking yet more records with the bat in the first Test in Rawalpindi as they racked up 506-4 on day one - a world record score for the highest total on the first day of a Test.
Zak Crawley also struck the fastest hundred by an England opener off 86 balls, while Harry Brook struck the quickest 150 by an Englishman off 115 balls and also broke the record for the most runs scored in a single over by an England batter twice in the same innings.
"Very early on in the summer, I tried to describe to the lads that we're in the entertainment business," Stokes said of England's new approach. "Go out and entertain the people who watch us. Try to make every day of a Test as entertaining and watchable as we can. Enjoy the moment."
