It is 2026 and Joe Root is again England Test captain and Kevin Pietersen is back in the fold.

For those two things to be the new normal says plenty about the upheaval in one of the most turbulent summers in English cricket’s recent history.

The debate as to whether there should have been alterations to the leadership after the Ashes has become a moot point, because England have nevertheless ended in a post-Bazball era.

Has the lack of change in the spring led to a wasted summer? Try telling any of Jordan Cox, Emilio Gay or Dan Lawrence that the summer has been wasted. Or a resurgent Ollie Robinson. Or Root, who had to rummage around his garage to dig out his old captain’s blazer.

Are England a better team in September than they were in June? It is hard to argue that a team that has lost Ben Stokes has improved, though that should take nothing away from all the good things England have done in the 3-0 series sweep of Pakistan.

It is not a criticism of Stokes to say his personality dominated the England team he led. By the end of his reign, England were characterised by what Stokes said and did.

Naturally, England are different under Root, a different personality to Stokes.

Until the third evening of the third Test at Edgbaston, most of those differences seemed positive. There had been a calmness about England’s demeanour, perhaps because they had not been tested to that point.

That calmness eroded with every swing of Razaullah’s blade. Two hours of chaos frazzled England and exposed old doubts from Root’s first spell as captain. The skipper himself felt it necessary to duck off the field. Stokes rarely lost control in such a fashion.

Even after such a bruising session, there were some small positives. Stand-in coach Marcus Trescothick was happy to admit his disappointment at what had transpired, a shift in tone from the Kool Aid messaging of the Bazball boys.

In reality, we are ending the summer with no clear knowledge of how good this England team is, following a pattern of years gone by: the drawn Ashes in 2023, a shock defeat by Sri Lanka at The Oval at the end of 2024 and the failure to win the final Test against India last year.

And that is the ultimate frustration of England’s Test performances in the four-plus years that Rob Key has been director of cricket.

When the defining series have rolled around, England have not won them. In between those big challenges there have been more questions than answers. The brass ring always remains just out of reach, always searching for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.