‘England fire first Ashes shot, now must make sure it does not backfire’ – BBC Sport

England want the Ashes back and have been unashamedly honest that the planning has begun. For Stokes and McCullum, it seems likely their story ends down under and both will crave a piece of the Aussies.

The captain has only ever won one Ashes series, on home soil in 2015. In terms of trips to Australia, he was part of an England team that fell apart in 2013-14, did not go because of the Bristol incident in 2017-18 and was only just coming back from a break from cricket for the Covid-hit tour of 2021-22. Next time, he wants a team that will give success on his last shot.

There will be no love lost from proud New Zealander McCullum, either. Captain of the Black Caps team that lost the 2015 World Cup final to Australia in Melbourne, McCullum only ever won one Test against the Aussies.

Playing Australia in the final Test of his own career, McCullum clattered the fastest Test hundred of all time, off 54 balls. Baz was Bazballing before Bazball was a thing.

Rightly or wrongly, eras of England Test teams are judged on the Ashes. It can be argued that the best way to beat Australia is to simply focus on becoming the best team possible, beating the opposition in front of you on any given day.

But it is not impossible to be planning for the future while at the same time doing what is right for now, and the first Test of England’s refresh could not have gone much better, mainly because it was the new faces that starred in the innings demolition of West Indies.

Anderson never managed to take 12 wickets in a Test in 188 attempts. Gus Atkinson did it first go, his 12-106 the best figures by an England debutant since Queen Victoria was on the throne.

The Surrey man is quick, uncomplicated and unassuming. He is a very different bowler to Anderson, but it was hard not to think a torch was being passed when the two men were operating in tandem on the third and final morning.

When Atkinson took the winning wicket, thus denying Anderson the glorious send-off, Anderson was the first man on the scene with congratulations. Atkinson apologised, but Anderson playfully told him, in less polite terms, to not worry about it because the win was more important.

Atkinson is far from the finished article and Lord’s might turn out to be the best it ever gets for him, but he has shown it is right for England to have him in their plans as they rebuild a pace attack following the exits of Broad and Anderson in back-to-back home Tests.

There is a question of how long Chris Woakes remains part of the set-up, but he has the advantage of being the best number eight at England’s disposal. One of Dillon Pennington or Matthew Potts will come in for the second Test at Trent Bridge, while Mark Wood could also return after being added to the squad.

Sam Cook and Olly Stone are bubbling under, Josh Hull is a possible Ashes bolter and there is hope Jofra Archer can get fit enough to play Tests again.

Jamie Smith looked at home in Test cricket, doing everything he needed to with the keeping gloves, yet even he admitted that batting is his primary skill.

As Smith was pootling along with 30 from 47 deliveries, his displaced Surrey team-mate Ben Foakes would have been forgiven for thinking that he was perfectly capable of such a knock.

When Smith hit the afterburners, including a six that bounced off the roof of the Tavern Stand, he showed why he has been picked. His 70 was encouraging, with the promise of more to come.

Shoaib Bashir, on his home debut, was not required to bowl, but perhaps the biggest boost to England’s future prospects was the return to full fitness of Stokes.

How much easier the life of Stokes the captain must be now that he has Stokes the bowler at his disposal. The all-rounder’s shiny new left knee got him through an eight-over spell in the first innings and a 10-over spell in the second. All of a sudden, England have the balance of a mountain goat. Now the skipper just needs some runs.

Other positives included some breathtaking catches and a batting tempo that suited the match situation, even if at least one of England’s players should have scored a hundred. It will not have gone unnoticed by the Aussies that Harry Brook was bounced out again.

There are dangers attached to England talking about Australia this far away from the trip down under.

Any sort of slip up from now on will lead to accusations of taking their eye off the ball. In truth, they should be targeting a clean sweep of six wins in the home Tests against West Indies and Sri Lanka this summer, but the Windies in particular have a history of producing shock results.

There are other prizes to chase, too. Even with the win at Lord’s, England lie bottom of the World Test Championship, partly because of over-rate penalties, but mainly because they won only three of their previous 10 Tests. Climbing that would be a sign of progress towards their ultimate goal.

But England have made their intentions clear. They have pulled the trigger on the first shot in the Ashes battle.

Now they must make sure it does not backfire.