As a consequence, it may be back to Baz-ics for Bazball over the next month or so. It would be deeply disrespectful to describe this three-Test stop-over as a rest cure – New Zealand’s proud home record would have seen to that, even before taking last month’s astonishing exploits into account – but there’s arguably nowhere on earth that this particular England team would rather be right now.

From the conditions, to the culture, to the unavoidable anonymity of a tour that takes place on the other side of the world and then some, a series in New Zealand leans into the more permissive aspects of England’s current regime. It’s a chance to walk the talk with fewer consequences than you might find elsewhere – not least in the backyard of those noisier trans-Tasman neighbours who are awaiting for 12 months hence – and to revisit the principles that ruled the roost back in 2022, when the stress of the international treadmill first invited the belief that there must be a better way.

Stokes himself arrived in Christchurch early to catch up with his extended family, having conceded that the Pakistan trip was one of the hardest of his career, while Brendon McCullum is back in his fiefdom too: even his famously unflappable persona could benefit from a reset, as he seeks to turn that serenity back onto England’s somewhat battered foundations.

That said, England could and perhaps should have won 2-0 at a canter on their last trip – the enforcing of an unnecessary follow-on at Wellington, and the subsequent unfurling of Kane Williamson’s finest form, saw to that. But that result was one of many lackadaisical moments that have left England distant stragglers in the race for the World Test Championship final. By contrast New Zealand, inaugural champions in 2021, are most definitely back in the hunt. Another 3-0 series win would propel them ever deeper into the mix. And if that might, on the face of it, seem a tall ask, it’s nothing compared to the triumph they’ve only just secured.

In the spotlight – Jacob Bethell and Kane Williamson

Team news: Williamson returns, Pope takes England’s gloves

New Zealand: 1 Tom Latham (capt), 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Nathan Smith, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Matt Henry, 11 William O’Rourke

England: 1 Zak Crawley, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Ollie Pope (wk), 7 Ben Stokes (capt), 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Gus Atkinson, 10 Brydon Carse, 11 Shoaib Bashir

Pitch and conditions: Seamers to the fore

It looks a green meanie at the moment, though New Zealand’s pitches have a tendency to be misleading, with the livid grass at the toss rarely lasting much beyond the first session. However, there’s been overnight rain in Christchurch to keep the conditions fresh, and neither side anticipates spin being a major factor.

Stats and trivia

Quotes

“New conditions, new team. For us, it’s about trying to take as much confidence as we can from that series; the way we played, the approach we tried to take into that series in conditions that were tough. Knowing that we can do it all around the world is the confidence we need to take into here.”
Black Caps skipper Tom Latham on the bringing home the good vibes from India

“I think we do know what we’re doing. There is thought and there is process towards it, even if it does raise a few eyebrows. We’re not picking people just to wind people up.”
Ben Stokes, England’s captain, defends Bethell’s impending Test debut despite his lack of first-class record