Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have led a stunning revival of England 's fortunes in Test match cricket and opener Alex Lees believes the duo are a "dream partnership".
The new coach and captain took over a side that had won just one of their last 17 Test matches and have overseen a major change in fortunes, with England unbeaten in the format so far this summer. They produced four stunning chases as they whitewashed New Zealand 3-0 and completed a record-breaking win over India.
And Lees has embraced Stokes and McCullum's new "aggressive and positive brand of cricket", notably setting the tone for the stunning India victory with a brilliant 56 off just 65 balls. "To be a part of this group of players is quite exciting as an individual and to be a part of a successful team," Lees told Mirror Sport as he took part in a media net session with Durham Cricket partners, Vertu Motors.
"The public perception has been quite a big turnaround really from the previous few months, it's been an incredible journey to be a part of. Being in that environment with a new coach such as Baz and obviously a new captain... it's had a real rejuvenating feeling and fortunately we've played some really good cricket.
"I think the two characters are very well-matched and they both have a very similar vision of how they want the team to play their cricket. As players themselves, obviously Brendan's now retired, but they both play a very aggressive and positive brand of cricket.
"As a coach and a captain, it's almost a dream partnership for how they see the game being played. Obviously, they've had instant success but I'm sure there'll be challenging times ahead and there'll be games where that that sort of ideology and philosophy is tested, but they're both true to their cricketing beliefs.
"I think there's definitely been a slight mindset shift within the team and as a collective we've got to buy into that, to try and feel like there's a vision of what the captain and coach want for this team moving forward."
Lees himself has been more attacking at the top of the order and, after a difficult debut tour of the Caribbean, he is starting to feel much more "confident" ahead of England's upcoming three-Test series against South Africa.
"I think in Test cricket the wickets are slightly more conducive sometimes to playing in a more expansive fashion," he explained. "Obviously the quality of the bowling is better, but the wickets are truer and the pace on the ball is far greater so it does open itself up to some areas of scoring that you don't always have access to in county cricket.
"I'm still going to look to be positive in how I play, but I think the important thing is that you try and play the situation in a manner which is in the best interests of the team. I've felt pretty comfortable, I've played positively without really getting a big score.
"The obvious thing as a batter is to get that first hundred, which is something that I'll be trying to do. But more importantly it'd be nice to have a real solid series with some good contributions, some big scores and win some Test matches.
"I feel pretty confident going into this series and if I can play in the manner I did in the first four [Tests of the summer], one of those innings should be a substantial one." And the 29-year-old is hoping to establish a "much more consistent" opening partnership with Zak Crawley, who has struggled so far this summer.
"Certainly it's been different," Lees said when asked about batting with Crawley. "In any team and probably any work environment, you take a bit of time to bed in and learn people's characters, how he bats and the things that keep him in a good place to score runs.
"It's clearly obvious that he's a super talented batsman, he can score all around the wicket. I'm pretty calm at the crease and pretty relaxed in general, so I think it's about working on that partnership.
"It's been nice batting with him and hopefully we can grow [our partnership] into something a lot stronger and much more consistent in this series coming up."
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