Will rock’n’roll England of Stokes and McCullum blow away Australia?

Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have plotted a transformation in England’s Test fortunes in the past year. Can it be sustained into the Ashes? Photograph: Philip Brown/Getty Images

After the recent Test against Ireland at Lord’s, with a dressing room full of the bucket hats he had ordered staring back at him, Ben Stokes delivered a calm, precise message: to regain the Ashes, none of what had got England to this point changes.

Whatever happens next against a fine Australia side, that a team chewed up so badly by their opponents 18 months ago will hit Edgbaston this week so emboldened – happy to spend the intervening time on Scotland’s golf courses – says a fair bit about the mentality shift under Stokes’s captaincy and the charisma of Brendon McCullum.