Mike Atherton: Ben Stokes’ England has echoes of Michael Vaughan’s Ashes heroes

The Ashes are on the horizon, Australia is looking shaky in India, and England is on the cusp of its longest winning streak in nearly two decades, writes MIKE ATHERTON.

England’s current streak brings back memories of Michael Vaughan’s famous side. Picture: Clive Rose/Getty Images

Word is, among those squad members with long enough memories – James Anderson and Stuart Broad, in other words – that this is considered to be England’s strongest crop of Test cricketers for more than a decade, since No 1 status was last reached in 2011. But, should victory come in Wellington this week, you’d have to go back even longer to find a winning streak to match.

Ben Stokes’s team can win their seventh consecutive Test, something England have not achieved since 2004, when Michael Vaughan was fashioning a team that would eventually topple Australia the following year. With the Ashes on the horizon, and Australia looking a little shaky in India, that is an intriguing echo of the past.

Vaughan’s run came between May and December 2004 and took in eight consecutive victories: three over New Zealand, four over West Indies and one in South Africa. There was a definite feeling then, as now, that something special was being concocted, based around the development of a group of fast bowlers under the most enterprising captain for a generation.

It was the fast bowlers who were the focus of England’s build-up in Wellington. Anderson, it was revealed by the ICC, went back to the top of the Test rankings after his seven-wicket haul in Mount Maunganui, a remarkable achievement for a 40-year-old. He is the fifth oldest man to hold that mark – the ICC has worked the rankings retrospectively – and the oldest since Clarrie Grimmett, an Australia leg spinner, in 1936.

Officially the world’s best Test bowler. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

Broad and Anderson shared 12 wickets in Mount Maunganui and would dearly love to play again at the ground where their partnership began 15 years and 1,009 wickets (in the matches they have played together) ago, but they were said to be a little stiff, while Ollie Robinson has suffered some shin soreness. All will be given maximum time to recover.

The pitch was very green at its unveiling and conditions will be markedly different from Mount Maunganui, by dint of this being a day game with a red ball. England’s strategy in the pink-ball game was executed to perfection, twice engineering a situation in which they were bowling at dusk under lights, but there will be no such need to manipulate artificial conditions this time.

Stokes was happy to be returning to a city where he spent two happy years of his childhood, in between Christchurch and the move to England, and where he continued to develop the cricket and rugby skills that enabled him to settle into life in the UK so readily. He confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that he will be returning before the end of the Indian Premier League, to play in the four-day Test against Ireland before the Ashes.

He was also happy to concede that, after four consecutive wins over New Zealand, his team have the psychological edge. Indeed no team have yet coped with the full-frontal barrage of aggressive cricket championed by this new England. Should teams get sucked in and try to slug it out, blow for blow, or should they stick to their knitting? No one has found a coherent response.

“We’re very clear about what we’re going to do,” Stokes said. “We’ve just got an understanding within our group at the moment, so it’s good to know that the teams playing against us are having to react to what we’re doing. And I feel if that’s the case, then if you’re not winning the game, you’re winning in that moment.”

Ben Stokes’ England has won six Tests in a row. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

Of course it was not long ago in Australia that he was on the wrong side of that equation. “Good point,” Stokes said. “We have been on that side of the fence before, where you’re scratching your head and you start changing plans every 45 minutes or so, because things haven’t worked. The one thing that is good for us at the moment is the clarity in which we operate. I would rather teams are reacting to us than the other way around.”

Since New Zealand’s ascent to world Test champions, these two teams have travelled in very different directions. While England are looking for their seventh consecutive win, New Zealand’s past seven matches have produced five defeats and two draws. They are missing players such as BJ Watling, Colin de Grandhomme, Ross Taylor (retired), Trent Boult (opted out of a national contract) and Kyle Jamieson (injured and undergoing a spinal fusion this week).

They have a new captain trying to find his way, an old captain – Kane Williamson – who was airbrushed from the opening Test with two low scores, and out-of-form players such as Henry Nicholls, who averages 22 in the past two years. That said, New Zealand’s record at the Basin Reserve is excellent, having won three of their past five Tests here by an innings and another by ten wickets.

New Zealand’s fortunes have vastly contrasted England’s. Picture: Phil Walter/Getty Images

Both sets of players made their way south to the windy city over the past two days, with two Black Caps, Blair Tickner and Will Young, released for a brief period to help the rescue efforts post-cyclone in their devastated Hawke’s Bay region, and Matt Henry added to the squad after the birth of his first child. England opted for optional practice sessions in between golf at Royal Wellington and the links of Paraparaumu.

After the delights of Mount Maunganui, the Basin Reserve is another Test ground high on the list of special venues for England’s travelling supporters. Like all the best grounds, it is at the heart of a city, in this instance in the middle of a huge roundabout – a cutthrough on non-match days – and within walking distance for most Wellingtonians. It offers a combination of delightful viewing experiences: grassy banks for the picnic seekers, stands at one end and roomy surrounds, to allow spectators the ability to wander around.

It is a ground dripping with history – this was the venue for New Zealand’s second Test, in 1930 – and quirky features. How many grounds have a bandstand? A flagstone commemorates the first Test, when Frank Woolley and KS Duleepsinhji played for England, during a winter in which two England teams were in operation simultaneously in New Zealand and the Caribbean.

The first three days are sold out, which partly reflects a home season that has featured little international cricket and partly the attractiveness of England’s Test team. Tickets are affordable too, at dollars 70 (about pounds 35) for five days. It promises to be as far removed from the corporate, restricted feel of a day’s cricket in England as it is possible to be – putting the spectators first, for once.

Originally published as Mike Atherton: Ben Stokes’ England has echoes of Michael Vaughan’s Ashes heroes