Language has always been a tenet of Ben Stokes' captaincy.
His team's holistic approach required positivity to the nth degree. Stuart Broad, who experienced the first 18 months of this era, tells a story of going into the dressing room and complimenting the quality of the middling cappuccino served at the team hotel, just to get him going as a not-naturally-uber-positive personality.
You will be familiar with some of the buzz phrases - "running towards the danger", "be where your feet are" and so on. But there were subtler bits too, thrown out in the media as sardines from the trawler that was the dressing-room. The first of these came in 2022, on the eve of Stokes' first assignment as full-time captain, against New Zealand, at Lord's.
That winter's Ashes, followed by a woeful tour of the Caribbean, had gone so badly that this new era of Stokes, Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key had been branded a "reset". Stokes, however, wanted to clarify it was actually a "blank canvas". An opportunity to paint new, more vivid pictures.
The last four years has certainly offered a break from the monochrome. Plenty has been chucked at that once-blank canvas. Some thought-out strokes, some impulsive splatters, all have been motivated by the desire to build a successful cricket team espousing the philosophies of a coach and captain who have veered from one another at vital junctures. The problem is, throwing down different colours usually leaves you with a big brown mess.
That's more or less what remained after the latest Ashes debacle. But, rather than apply new licks, or start afresh, England have chucked out the canvas and burned the brushes altogether, ahead of another era-opening meeting with New Zealand.
Regardless of the XI they eventually settle on for Lord's on Thursday, there will be four changes from the last Test in Sydney, and potentially as many as six from the Perth side that lost in two days at the start of what could have been a legacy-defining Ashes series.
The biggest shift, however, has come around spoken words. A directive from above has resulted in McCullum speaking ahead of matches - he used to save his thoughts for the aftermath of England defeats - and keep player interactions in the lead-in to a minimum.
"For us, it's quite important we pivot slightly from what we've done previously, and make sure that we're trying to articulate some of the ideas that we've got for this team," McCullum explained on Tuesday of this change of tack. Interestingly, that was not the first time McCullum had spoken before a game. He did so in Adelaide, with England trailing Australia 2-0, fresh from a much-criticised break in Noosa.
The logic now is as it was in December: to insulate the players. "You'll probably see me a little bit more often than you have previously," McCullum added. "For us, we want our boys to really focus on the next couple of days… We can wear some of the other stuff."
It's not just "the boys" whose focus is narrowing onto the actual cricket. Since returning from Australia, Stokes has kept his counsel and has exclusively focused on building himself back up mentally and physically, using his contribution to the Ashes review - in which he was critical of McCullum - as a form of catharsis.
The pain of the 4-1 loss left Stokes hellbent on returning to action after recovering from an adductor injury picked up in the fifth Test. A broken cheekbone, sustained in an incident in the nets at Durham, pushed that to May. Even sponsor commitments, par for the course for an athlete of his repute, have been met with short shrift.
In his first press conference since January, Stokes took a different approach to his first pre-match offering as captain back in 2022. There were few frivolities, and no catchphrases to spread.
"Words are very easy to say," he offered. "I guess we're at the point where it doesn't really matter what we say.
"You've pretty much heard everything that you probably need to hear. It's then about going out there and winning games of cricket. That's where hopefully we'll do the rest of our talking. And yeah, words are done now."
It is easy to extrapolate to describe this third and final stanza of his captaincy. The same could be said of the jobs of McCullum and Key. But Stokes wears it more heavily than most, with an air of desperation.
There have been noteworthy developments on the technical tweaking of his bowling, after impressive showings against India and Australia. New ECB elite national pace bowling lead Troy Cooley has outlined how England can better utilise their bowling resources, with Stokes a prominent part of that. There has been work with men's elite pace bowling coach Neil Killeen, and even with Durham teammate Ben Raine around Stokes' two county appearances. In the first of those, against Worcestershire, he even opened the bowling. He is prepared to do the same for England at some point this summer.
A bigger role change will come in the batting order. This Test will be the first in which Jamie Smith will be inked in at No.6, with Stokes dropping down to seven. Stokes' returns with the bat have dwindled over time, and he averaged 18.4 in the Ashes. But his openness to demoting himself - having previously taken the suggestion as an affront - is as much about Smith's higher ceiling as Stokes addressing his own mortality. Speaking on the eve of his birthday, he admitted a top-six role, combined with bowling and captaincy, is wearing him down.
"I'm 35 tomorrow, getting towards it… Jamie's going to be playing a lot longer than me, I think," he said.
"We think we're going to see an even better version of Jamie Smith. He's started the summer incredibly well, batting at three for Surrey. And again, it's good for me. [After] captaining, bowling, batting ... maybe [it's] a bit more less physical, and a bit more time to switch off, I guess.
"Stress is probably not the right word… I used to bat at five and was bowling as well. I found that quite tough, the longer I did it. I felt I was bowling at the back-end of the innings quite a lot and, if we did lose an early wicket, I would still have my bowling boots on and then have to get ready and get my pads on ... stuff like that.
"Over a long period of time, you bowl a lot of overs, you're standing in the field, you're thinking about captaining and batting - it is mentally tiring as well. You then come off the field, and you're getting that off and then getting this on.
"Over time it can get a bit tiring. You sort of just go, 'right, how can I give myself the best chance of being the best version of myself, as long as I can?'"
There, between the lines, is the crux of this new era. It is less about refinement and more about accepting reality. Admitting to previous shortcomings and respecting limits. It's not about making the team feel ten-feet tall, but reminding them they average out at about 6-foot-2. Fewer words, more actions.
This is not about the refinement of exciting talent. It's about a group embracing the reality that they are not as good as they should be.