Stokes and McCullum have lifted the pressure from the England Test side

The idea that defeat would be acceptable as long as we gave it a go never got anywhere near any team I played in

During the summer, as the Test side being reshaped by Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum found immediate success on home soil, there was very much a feeling among knowledgable cricket people that come their first trip abroad conditions in Pakistan would present much more of a challenge. But this team continues to write their own script, ignoring the conventions of the game, and even the flattest of pitches in Rawalpindi could not restrain them.

I have never seen such total alignment between a head coach, his captain, and the managing director, Rob Key, who selected them. I think of my international career, when it was an inviolable rule that individual players were given ownership of their game – they had been picked for their country and there was a prevailing view that you had reached the pinnacle of the game and it was not for someone else to tell you how to go out and play.