Finally someone in the England set-up has vocalised one of the team’s biggest failings. When England’s new coach, former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum emphasised to his bowlers “Don’t focus too much on economy rates, I want wickets,” he was applying Test cricket commonsense. To sum up Test cricket simply, batsmen need to score sensibly in order to give the bowlers as long as possible to take the 20 wickets required for victory. England’s better bowlers often place containment above the more important priority of taking wickets. In plain language, I’ve never seen a batsman—no matter how good—who scores runs that appear in a scorebook while he’s sitting in the pavilion having been dismissed.

Need a balanced attack

Top-class batsmen can’t be contained out in the middle. Eventually they find a way to score at an acceptable rate. That’s one reason why they are rated as dangerous players. As good as they are, Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad have both been guilty, especially overseas, of focusing too much on the economy rate. That’s why Ben Stokes needs to concentrate on their meritorious wicket-taking capability more than listening to quick-response talk of containment.