An under-pressure England team are lucky they will largely fly under the radar during this most pivotal of home summers given much of it will clash with a football World Cup. But give it a year – and the arrival of the Australians for the Ashes – and things will be very, very different.
By then cricket will take centre stage again as England begin their quest to win back the urn for the first time in 12 years – and the pressure on Ben Stokes and his players will be huge.
It will not only be the defining series of Stokes’ captaincy but perhaps a sliding doors moment when the public decide whether or not this is a sport to take seriously any more.
That’s how damaging last winter in Australia was. It wasn’t only a 4-1 series defeat but a moment when the English sporting public finally lost patience with a team that, from the outside, didn’t appear to be taking things seriously themselves.
England have stuck with Brendon McCullum (left) but appointed a new selector in Marcus North (Photo: Getty)
