Brendon McCullum's removal as England red-ball coach, coupled with Ben Stokes' retirement, brings an emphatic end to an unforgettable era for the Test team. In 49 Tests between June 2022 and July 2026, England won 27 and lost 20, with just two draws, and produced some of the most memorable performances - good, and bad - in their history. Here we look back on some of the high- and low-lights.
The best
Second Test vs New Zealand, Trent Bridge 2022
Stokes' instructions to Jonny Bairstow would become the stuff of legend. "Don't even think about hitting one down [the ground], hit it into the stands!" So Bairstow did, to the tune of 136 from 92 balls, as England romped to a stiff run-chase of 299 in exactly 50 overs. It was the official unofficial launch of the Bazball era, but the pace of England's chase was just the fifth-day cherry on top. Before any of that could be possible, the team had had to stay positive throughout New Zealand's vast first-innings 553, then score at such a hectic rate in their own reply of 539 that any thought of a draw was banished from the narrative. Instead, New Zealand faltered in that tricky third innings, and the rest was pure vibes.
First Test vs India, Hyderabad 2024
By the end of England's 4-1 thumping in India, the cracks in England's methods were already too vast ever to be fully repaired. And yet, for one extraordinary Test - the first big overseas challenge of Stokes' and McCullum's tenure - they absolutely nailed their brief with a victory that deserves to be remembered as one of England's greatest of all time. Nothing at this stage could dent the innate optimism of the regime, not even a 190-run first-innings deficit, whereupon Ollie Pope strode out to produce his innings for the ages. On a pitch where propping forward to the spinner was bound to invite trouble, Pope essentially repurposed the reverse-sweep (for four) as his go-to defensive option. It was the sort of bravado that only a no-consequences regime could enable, and India - at this juncture of the series - had no such safety nets to fall into. Enter Tom Hartley, England's debutant spinner who'd been belted at close to a run-a-ball in the first innings. Backed up by Stokes' aggressive fields and unswerving faith, his second-innings seven-for delivered a sensational 28-run win.
First Test vs Pakistan, Rawalpindi 2022
This might well have been Stokes' finest hour as England captain. His first overseas Test in charge began with the visitors felled by a sickness bug that almost had the start to be delayed by 24 hours. It ended with a pitch-perfect declaration on one of the flattest surfaces in Test history, then an exemplary marshalling of his bowling resources, backed up by funky fields to seal a famous win in the fading light on the fifth and final evening. But the catalyst for victory was England's ruthless run-harvesting after winning a vital toss. At stumps on day one, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Pope and Harry Brook had all blazed centuries in a scoreline of 506 for 4 in 75 overs. Once again, England's madcap tempo was warping the format's accepted parameters, and buying the time to force an extraordinary result.
Fifth Test vs India, Edgbaston 2022
After three exhilarating wins over New Zealand, here was the first big acid test for England's new attitude. Twelve months previously, Virat Kohli's India had bullied a timid line-up to claim a 2-1 series lead, only for their five-match series to be suspended on the morning of the decider due to a Covid-19 outbreak. Back they came the following summer, whereupon Rishabh Pant cracked 146 from 111 balls to prove that aggressive batting was hardly unique to England. Stuart Broad even suffered the indignity of a 35-run over at the hands of India's No.10 (and new captain) Jasprit Bumrah, and when England slipped to 109 for 3 chasing 378, the Bazbubble seemed fit to burst. Bairstow, however, wasn't done with his astonishing vein of form. His second century of the match, and fourth in five innings, ransacked the remainder of the chase in an unbroken stand of 269 with Joe Root.
Third Test vs Australia, Headingley 2023
Hindsight says that the rot in England's regime set in in the summer of 2023, when they failed to claim the Ashes on home soil after slumping to a 2-0 deficit. An over-aggressive declaration had allowed Australia to swipe the first Test at Edgbaston, and while the second at Lord's dissolved in recriminations about Bairstow's run-out, England's reckless batting in the wake of Nathan Lyon's series-ending injury was the true villain of that loss. And yet, the absolute, unshakeable self-belief of England's set-up had to be seen to be believed. At no point, before or since, had they been quite so high on their own supply, and in the face of all evidence, they carried on projecting the belief that they were the best team. At Headingley, they set about proving it with another exceptional, if more agonising, 250-plus chase, after Mark Wood and Chris Woakes had injected pace and nous to their bowling effort. But for rain at Old Trafford, England were convinced they had the momentum to become the first team since Don Bradman's in 1936-37 to win 3-2 from 2-0 down. But, as Australians have gleefully pointed out ever since, moral victories count for nowt in the final analysis.
The worst
Second Test vs New Zealand, Wellington 2023
In the end for McCullum, it all came down to results. While the individual moments of the Bazball era were some of the most exhilarating in England's Test history, the fact remains that they failed to win a series against India or Australia at home or away, partly because - in between whiles - they failed to develop the ruthlessness to back up their unfettered approach. This was never more apparent than at Wellington in February 2023. In the moment of England's one-run loss to New Zealand, even their arch-grumpus (and last man out) James Anderson allowed himself to crack a smile, while Stokes said afterwards that the final half-hour of the contest had been "everything that you wish for". Well, not quite. England's fans had wished for an unprecedented 12th Test win in 13 matches, which had been entirely on the cards at the halfway mark of the match. Instead the enforcement of an unnecessary follow-on handed New Zealand a route back into the series. England's desire to please themselves first, and everyone else by proxy, had encountered the first of many moments when their supporters felt obliged to push back.
Third Test vs New Zealand, Trent Bridge 2026
In what turned out to be the last match of the Bazball era, England laid on a fittingly Viking-style funeral. Stokes lit his own Test funeral pyre on a chaotic fourth evening, and McCullum doubled down immediately after New Zealand had landed a famous come-from-behind 2-1 series win, insisting he was the right man to lead the rebuild despite the ECB's clear manouverings behind the scenes. Several of the old tropes of the era were still in situ, not least a gutsy bowling fightback after New Zealand had romped to 317 for 0 on a blisteringly hot first day, but so too was the witlessness of the batting as witnessed during the Ashes. Brook's nine-ball 21, concluded with a flicked catch to fine leg, was accompanied by an impromptu epitaph from New Zealand's fielders over the stump mic: "What are they doing?!" Well, quite.
Second Test vs Australia, Brisbane 2025
England's most recent Ashes tour was, without question, their best opportunity for a series win in Australia since the triumphant campaign of 2010-11. Instead, it was surrendered in just 11 days of action. And, with respect to a chaotic two-day loss at Perth that left Stokes "shellshocked", it was the day-night Test at Brisbane when the cracks in the captain-coach alliance became too wide to ignore. The match had begun with a clear divulgence in methods. McCullum had been keen to stick to the pre-series plan of minimal practice and unfettered minds; Stokes was rather more eager to hit the nets and get his charges up to speed - as shown by his infamous post-match declaration that Australia was "no place for weak men". The upshot was a hopelessly muddled gameplan that reached its nadir in a crazy floodlit third evening, when England squandered six wickets despite knowing how flat the conditions would be, if only they could shelve their impulses until the following day's sun-baked resumption. Unlike in 2023, there was no earthly hope of a turnaround from this 2-0 scoreline.
Third Test vs Sri Lanka, Oval 2024
If the Wellington loss could be forgiven on the grounds of entertaining cricket, then there were no such caveats available for an abject defeat to Sri Lanka. The series had already been wrapped up, and England collectively took their eyes off the ball despite a 6-0 home summer sweep being on the cards. Instead, the selectors' thoughts immediately fast-forwarded to future overseas engagements. Josh Hull - a then-20-year-old beanpole left-arm seamer - was clearly the sort of unit who might one day prove useful at the Gabba, but a season's haul of two wickets at 182.50 for Leicestershire hardly marked him out as a name for the here and now. Dan Lawrence, an idiosyncratic middle-order strokemaker, was shunted up to open the batting in place of the injured Crawley, and had such an awful experience, he's never been near the squad since. And, long before Pathum Nissanka stroked his way to glory, Brook had a mid-pitch tantrum after Sri Lanka dared to bowl dry outside his off stump. It was all rather undignified.
Third Test vs India, Rajkot 2024
Was this the ultimate sliding-doors Test? In essence, England's attitude to their big overseas challenges of the Bazball era was that they were willing to lose heavily, in order to win thrillingly. Despite appearances, there was a clear logic to such an approach - if, as had been shown time and again on previous tours of India, their players lacked the technique and application to win with standard Test-match tactics, it made sense to play in fast-forward, take the draw out of the equation, and reduce as many games as possible to a coinflip. That approach, however, ignored the fact that, in Root, they possessed a proven matchwinner in Asian conditions. In Rajkot in 2024, the series was locked at 1-1 when Root and an inspired Duckett reached stumps on day two on 207 for 2, in reply to India's 445. This was the opportunity to bat their hosts out of contention - just as Root himself had done at Chennai three years earlier. Instead, he played his infamous scoop off Jasprit Bumrah - "the worst, most stupid, shot in the history of England's Test cricket" according to the veteran scribe, Scyld Berry, in the Telegraph. By his own admission, Root had been determined in that period not to be seen as a special case in England's ranks, even though that is exactly what he always has been. This sorry loss epitomised the shortcomings of a regime that had forgotten how to go up and down its gears.