England had one of those after their dismal Ashes winter and it started well enough with a Lord's victory over New Zealand, albeit in a two-day rollercoaster ride on a dreadful pitch that meant it was hard to gauge whether any genuine progress had been made. But that reset soon came crashing down amid familiar old failings of drink-related off-field incidents and witless shots on it. A depleted England side were annihilated at The Oval before a drubbing at Trent Bridge consigned them to a rare home Test series loss.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Captain Ben Stokes decided he had had enough (bizarrely revealing that midway through a bowling spell at Nottingham and then, the showman that he is, promptly taking a wicket), while coach Brendon McCullum received the tap on the shoulder. Now we have reset 2.0 with a new skipper - and an old one, too, with Joe Root retaking the job he previously held from 2017-2022 - and a new permanent coach, although not straight away with Stephen Fleming only taking over in earnest ahead of the South Africa trip this winter, leaving Marcus Trescothick in interim charge against Pakistan from Wednesday, live on Sky Sports. For good or for bad, we knew how England's Bazballers would approach a Test match but with Baz and Ben now gone - the former moving into international retirement, the latter focusing on his role as white-ball head coach - it will be intriguing to see how the style evolves in Root's second term at the helm.
Root stressed to Sky Sports' Michael Atherton that he did not want to be seen as a "negative captain" after the issue of England not appearing to even attempt a chase of 273 against New Zealand at Lord's under his leadership in 2021 was brought up - Dom Sibley's dead-batted 60 off 207 balls highlighted that mindset. He spoke glowingly about the effect Bazball had on "taking the fear away" from players and how much he had enjoyed being part of it. He plans to take that into his latest stint as leader but also bring a bit more situational awareness.
In one of Stokes' first interviews as captain four years ago, he was adamant he would never play for a draw. Root, though, explained to Atherton that his England would understand when that was sometimes the way to go. It seems a bit of nuance is coming.
And that is all England fans and followers have been crying out for. Bazball was not inherently bad, in fact it was inherently good in lifting the team out of the funk they were in after a long period of poor results and oppressive Covid bubbles beforehand. But it was also inherently flawed and never really sustainable.
Root's job now is to channel the best bits of Bazball, add his own stamp and build a winning machine. If England can play as Root bats, then they probably won't go far wrong. You could never accuse Root of being negative with the blade - we often hear pundits mention how you look up and England's all-time leading run-scorer is on 30 from 30 balls or similar - but he knows when to dial things down and how to win games.
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