When Stuart Broad said recently that he was addicted to playing for this England team under the uber-positive leadership of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum, it wasn’t hard to see where the old warhorse was coming from.
It’s now 92 days since that epic one-run defeat against New Zealand in windy Wellington, concluding a year of dramatic transmogrification for England during which their previous run of one win from 17 Tests was replaced by 10 from their past 12.
The withdrawal symptoms for those of us looking on have grown considerably during the hiatus and the sense, from watching training and seeing the smiles on faces, is that the players have felt the same.
These cravings will finally be sated this week, Ireland over for a four-day Test that gets under way at Lord’s on Thursday. Andy Balbirnie’s tourists might be heavy underdogs, their opportunities to play the longest format limited and their nascent first-class system mothballed since the pandemic, but they won’t forget rolling England for 85 all out on the first morning here four years ago.
It also marks the start of what promises to be a pretty special summer of Test cricket. After three months of abstinence a veritable two-month banquet awaits us, before the table is swiftly cleared for the Hundred to take centre stage in August.
A World Test Championship final between Australia and India at the Oval, five men’s Ashes Tests, plus a rare five-day women’s Test thrown in the mix? To hell with slow and steady: undo the top button, slip into some comfortable elastic-waisted slacks and get ready to gorge on the good stuff.
Stokes was dressed accordingly a day out from the toss, even if England’s snazzy new tracksuits are fashionably tight around the calves. He looked in pretty rude health too, energised and tanned after his recent time at – if hardly playing in – the Indian Premier League. That said, he once again opted against bowling during a final session on the Nursery Ground that was played out to the upbeat house tunes of McCullum’s massive Bluetooth speaker.
England (confirmed) Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Josh Tongue.
Ireland (possible) James McCollum, PJ Moor, Andy Balbirnie (c), Harry Tector, Paul Stirling, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Curtis Campher, Andy McBrine, Mark Adair, Graham Hume, Craig Young.
It’s here where questions linger – Stokes’s chronic knee problem that is, not McCullum’s penchant for a spot of Martin Solveig. Since hobbling off the outfield at the Basin Reserve in February, Stokes has played two IPL matches, bowled one over for 18 runs, and thus offered little tangible evidence of improvement. He insisted he is “in a much better place” after a lot of hard work behind the scenes, claimed to be in a similar state to the 2019 summer, and said the added adrenaline of a Test should not be forgotten here.
Whether this translates to a return of the full-blown champion all-rounder remains to be seen, Stokes conceding that mind and body may not agree here. This issue aside, there are a few changes since England last donned the whites. Jimmy Anderson and Ollie Robinson are rested amid niggles – the kind that didn’t seem worth risking against Ireland, said Stokes – while Ben Foakes has made way for the fit-again Jonny Bairstow, despite doing little wrong.
Josh Tongue also makes his debut in an attack led by Broad and Matthew Potts, Stokes explaining this was a case of wanting to take a look at a young thruster before – not during – the Ashes and Chris Woakes, the leapfrogged party, a known quantity.
It makes sense in some ways, even if less accommodating characters than Woakes might have kicked off at this reshuffling of the pecking order. Tongue is coming back from a side strain, however, and it also means no swing bowler for England at Lord’s, which is slightly curious in itself.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the messaging, with Stokes insisting his side would not divert from the approach that has seen them rattle along at 4.7 per over with the bat, treat the notion of a draw with contempt, and look to put enjoyment and entertainment at the forefront of everything they do. To switch now, just because Australia are in the country and the Ashes will soon be on the line, would be to forget what turned the ship around in the first place.
“This Ashes isn’t the thing that’s going to define us,” Stokes said. “That’s probably a bit strong, but what I mean by that is that this Ashes series is just part of the journey that we’ve been on and will continue to be on after this series. If you look at it too deeply as the be-all and end-all, when the Ashes series is finished, win or lose, it’ll be like: ‘What do we do from here?’
“The best thing about this team is that we don’t know the destination. Putting too much onus on this [Ashes] series compared to the others we’ve played would – not derail us – but would just not be what we’ve done over the past year.”
Such a long-term outlook is a luxury that a team like Ireland don’t have, this just their seventh Test since becoming a full‑member nation in 2017. And more generally, looking at the future tours programme, the longest format is starting to shrink for others, as ICC revenues are funnelled to the big boys and T20 leagues spread across the landscape like the red weed imagined by HG Wells.
But for this summer in England at least, there is little doubt that the main course starts at Lord’son Thursday, runs until 31 July and is called Test cricket. If it lives up to expectations, a good few more addicts should be created along the way.
England (confirmed) Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Stuart Broad, Matthew Potts, Jack Leach, Josh Tongue.
Ireland (possible) James McCollum, PJ Moor, Andy Balbirnie (c), Harry Tector, Paul Stirling, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Curtis Campher, Andy McBrine, Mark Adair, Graham Hume, Craig Young.
