England's extreme selection adds to changing Test tides

You may have missed it, but Test cricket is really fun at the moment.

- CAMERON PONSONBY

Cast your mind back to the start of 2024 and England’s 4-1 defeat in India. In the fourth Test, England had a golden chance to level the series at 2-2, but they let it slip and lost. Then 3-1 soon became 4-1, but there was no shame. India beat everyone at home.

Nevertheless, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes set about making sweeping changes. James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow and Ben Foakes were out. Gus Atkinson, Jamie Smith and Shoiab Bashir were in.

England’s new guard set about thrashing the West Indies 3-0 and then beat Sri Lanka 2-1. The only match they lost all summer was the final game at The Oval, where they fell to a bizarre, borderline complacent, eight-wicket defeat.

England beating Sri Lanka 2-1 was the minimum. Because Sri Lanka aren’t very good. Except, Sri Lanka immediately beat New Zealand 2-0, which would suggest that actually, it’s New Zealand who aren’t very good. Which would make sense if the Kiwis hadn’t then gone on to immediately whitewash India – in India – 3-0. The place where no one wins, remember. It was India’s first series defeat on home soil since 2012 – and one of the biggest shocks in the history of the sport.

Test cricket. Everyone beats everyone round here.

All of this is to say that the three upcoming Tests between New Zealand and England promise to continue the theme of fun. No one knows who’s going to win. And if they say they do, they’re lying.

The two teams arrive off the back of contrasting results in their most recent outings but both from conditions that will be altogether foreign to what lies ahead in the next three weeks. New Zealand, as mentioned, beat India in India. England lost 2-1 away to Pakistan.