Yeah but England have killed us in the fourth innings of every match. Not sure a little more luck with injuries/exclusions, dismissals/DRS or weather our way would've done much to stop us losing, we never had enough in the bank each time.
Sucks that Johnny fucking Bairstow has done most of the damage but you got to hold your hands up when it FINALLY works out for him.
No sour grapes then eh?
It think there is more to it than that, for example Roots scored a few runs too, as did others. Then there was the bowling, Broad and Anderson were both excellent and still showed why they are among the best seamers in the games history. The new lads were very good too and have arguably been let down by some average catching throughout the series. Oh and then there's that other bloke, Leach? He did rather well too but I don't think he'd have had the opportunity without Stokes taking the captaincy and I think the change in captain is the single biggest factor in this turnaround.
Does this series win demonstrate that the team were actually under performing with the previous captain / management? I think it was mentioned in this thread that perhaps they'd got over analytical which was making players risk adverse and stifling their talent. That includes the captain Root who seemed negative with this field placings and there is no way I could see him giving the spinner that many overs
and backing him with an attacking field, Cook was the same to be honest.
I read somewhere that Stokes hates lengthly team meetings about tactics etc. after a quarter of an hour he's ready to blow a stack and just wants to get out there and play - where you can actually affect the game. Initially I thought, that's fine for a bloke that can literally do anything at an exceptional level on a cricket field but then I thought that should apply to any of these players, they are at the top of their profession and should all be capable of significant contributions.
