Ben Stokes’s side are getting better at just right time

Suddenly, England have a glimpse of paradise. After a victory at Headingley that India had every opportunity to deny, there is a path to the summit.

On their own account, this group of 10 Tests, against India and Australia, will be the measure of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes.

England’s obsession with the Ashes can be irritating, as if all other series are mere dress-rehearsals. But that is how the judgement will be made, and the stars are beginning to align.

Napoleon is reputed to have once said he preferred to have a general who was lucky to one who was good.

McCullum and Stokes are certainly good. They have devised their own way of playing Test cricket. Unless the weather curtails a game, it is hard to envisage there being any draws.

England have made cricket binary, as if it were invented by Americans: win or lose.

But it looks as if McCullum and Stokes are lucky as well as good. England might be playing India in a state of transition followed by Australia falling down the curve just as England pass them on the way up.

The first point to note is the ­virtue of the England team itself. Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Harry Brook are batsmen of high class, Ben Stokes is ineffably himself and Jamie Smith will soon be the best counter-punching No 7 in the game, if he isn’t already.

And England can go hard at the top because, with Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse in the lower order, their batting is so deep. It would be deeper still if they accepted that Liam Dawson is the best spinner in the country, in addition to having 18 first-class centuries.

This is an Indian team who are too liable to fold at crucial moments. The first Test at Headingley was misleadingly close. England bowled poorly and batted erratically, and India had four batsmen – Yashasvi Jaiswal, KLRahul, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant – who scored five fine ­centuries between them. Yet England somehow still won. India are unlikely to bat better and England are unlikely to bowl worse and that augurs really badly for India.

At the end of the Test, Mohammed Shami – whose injury deprives India of a top-class seam bowler they ­desperately need – complained in the Indian media that Jasprit Bumrah cannot bowl England out alone. It is even worse than that. Bumrah will likely play only three of the five games and India have just thrown one of those away.

The head coach, Gautam Gambhir, has already presided over seven defeats in his 11 Tests in charge. He will surely not survive a 5-0 defeat and that is now on.

Switch the scene to Barbados and Australia aren’t in a great state either, despite forcing a ­victory inside three days. The top four selected for the first Test against the West Indies is not fit for purpose.

In the second innings Sam Konstas was dropped twice before he was bowled for five and Josh Inglis shouldered arms to a straight ball. Usman Khawaja looks past his best and Cameron Green, ­dismissed twice by Kagiso Rabada in five balls for four runs in the World Test final, is miscast at No 3.

Steve Smith has a broken finger and Marnus Labuschagne’s broken confidence has led him to be dropped when surely he is part of their best side. The chair of selectors George Bailey is making some strange calls.

Captain Pat Cummins suggested they saw Green as the long-term No 3, but surely Green ought to be at six, where Beau Webster looks no more than a moderate player having a good spell. Rather a good player than a lucky one even if, like Labuschagne, he is on a poor run. At the moment the top six is a mess.

The Australian bowling attack remains potent, but it is old and, if the team do not have many runs on the board, could we imagine them, like Manchester City last season, just suddenly going over the hill?

Teams do just fall apart and England play relentless cricket that invites a collapse. India might go and Australia might go. England’s luck might just be in.

Photograph by Gareth Copley/Getty Images