Before the last Ashes in Australia, the Covid-affected 2021-22 series, performance director Mo Bobat sat down with the BBC in a podcast series to detail England’s preparations.
Dieticians, analysts and medical staff were all interviewed to describe the lengths England had gone to make sure they were ready.
However, England decided to leave out Broad and James Anderson on a Brisbane green-top in the first Test, just so they would be fit for the pink-ball second Test. If this was part of the planning, it all seemed pointless. Obsessing about the future cost England. They lost the first Test emphatically and the series 4-0.
When Stokes and McCullum took over the leadership of this team in 2022, they righted the wrongs of the previous administration. They immediately stated they would pick the best team for the game in front of them.
What was impressive in that first Bazball summer was the intuition of the thought process and how present the players seemed to be. “Live where your feet are,” we heard them say. It resulted in some of the most exhilarating cricket we’ve ever seen played by an England team.
Playing in that manner, I firmly believe England can go to Australia and win, but we’d all be best served focusing on the immediate future, starting with New Zealand in Christchurch next week.
The Black Caps will be buoyant after their historic win in India. If England look past them, with their minds across the Tasman Sea, they will come home from New Zealand in a worse place to win the Ashes than when they started.
Momentum is built by winning game after game, Test after Test, one at a time. If England can regain this mindset it will give them their best chance of beating an Australia side that, by next winter, will be a bit of a Dad’s Army, coming to the end of their time together.
Just imagine how great an England win in Australia would be. Nothing would please me more. If we all manage to be less obsessed about it, there is more chance of it happening.