Still Early Days, but England Have the Tools to Deliver Down Under...

Derek Pringle looks ahead next year's winter tour to Australia, and offer hope for England to put the ghosts of 2013/14 to rest.

- Derek Pringle

For cricketers, there is no Xmas abroad like an Ashesone to bring joy or despair,emotional destinations decided entirely by how the team is doing. On top, when Santa pays his visit, and the sprouts will taste like the elixir of life. But find yourselves down, or even out, by that stage, and the brussels will have all the allure of Ben Stokes’ socks after a long day in the field.

This time next year England will find themselves in Melbourne with a similar binary choice over the sprouts. And while the recent Ashes of 2013/14, 2006/07 and 2002/03 had all been decided by then, in Australia’s favour, England have usually had something to play for by that stage, and should do again in 12 months.

A year can be an eternity when predicting how a team might evolve, but there is one decision that needs addressing right now – and that is England’s captaincy.

Andrew Strauss, director of England cricket, is set to meet Alastair Cook, England’s current captain, next week. What Strauss and the selectors must decide, following the Test team’s recent humiliating 4-0 defeat by India, is whether Cook, whose team were whitewashed in Australia last time but won the Ashes back in England soon after, is the best leader to help retain the oldest prize in cricket? Or whether the team’s needs will be best served in that quest by the energy and fizz of a new captain like Joe Root?