State of the Nation - Cricket: India next big Test for Joe Root's men

It is not exactly on a life support machine, but nor is it relaxing with a cigar in one hand and a copy of The Yorkshire Post in the other.

The truth lies probably somewhere in the middle as we head into a year that includes Test series against New Zealand (away) and Pakistan/India (home), along with the customary surfeit of one-day/T20 internationals.

In many ways, it feels like the calm before the storm – the year before the 2019 World Cup and the Ashes return in England, followed by the start of the new franchise-based T20 tournament on these shores in 2020.

While some of us await that particular competition with less than bated breath, while at the same time acknowledging the prevailing winds of change, the England cricket team continues to be a work in progress.

It is the type of work which, were it hanging in an art gallery, would enthrall visitors with its vivid touches of quality and flair and also infuriate them with one or two intrusive smudges.

When England are good, they are very good, and when they are bad, they are very bad, as highlighted during the Ashes campaign.

What captain Joe Root and coach Trevor Bayliss are looking for is consistency as they plot the recovery of the urn in 2019.

If this year feels like the prelude to more important challenges ahead, it is a necessary stepping stone towards such consistency.

For, as thoughts start to turn away from Australia and on towards New Zealand, where England begin a two-Test series on March 22, Root and Bayliss have still to completely finalise their best batting line-up, work out who is their best spinner and decide who are their likeliest pace bowlers going forward.

If the Ashes has shown anything, it is that the top-order batsmen – Root and Alastair Cook excepted when considered on overall form – are much of a muchness, and that England are short on pace and lacking in spin, not to mention starkly exposed in the absence of key all-rounder Ben Stokes.

The year 2018 represents a long run-up to the next Ashes and a chance to bed down such problem positions.

In the short-term, England will be confident of giving a much better account of themselves in New Zealand, where conditions are more familiar and where there is no Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins lurking to terrorise them, just as they will be confident of doing well in the two Tests at home to Pakistan, the second of them at Emerald Headingley from June 1-5.

The visit of India for a five-Test series in August/September will be particularly intriguing, with India keen to shrug off the poor travellers tag that has bedevilled them for years.

India thrashed England 4-0 at home last winter but, in common with the global trend, they are less successful away from home, with sides nowadays having increasingly less time to acclimatise/practice with sufficient tour games against quality opponents.

If India play anything like they can next summer, it could be a ripsnorter of a series, and it would be a feather in England’s cap indeed if they can see off the world’s current No 1-ranked side in their own backyard.

As for England’s women, and despite the fact that they, too, lost the Ashes in 2017, they had a splendid year in general as the World Cup was memorably secured on home soil.

The girls are making excellent progress under Yorkshire-born coach Mark Robinson and will be looking to continue it in a T20 tri-series in India in the Spring against the host nation and Australia, which will serve as good preparation for the ICC Women’s World T20 in West Indies in November.

There is much to look forward to, while it will be fascinating at a domestic level to see how county champions Essex back-up under new coach Anthony McGrath, the former Yorkshire player.

If his former employers have any say in the matter, of course, the Championship trophy will not be at Chelmsford for very long.