Imperfect and unmissable England's year of renewal

England won nine and lost eight of their 17 Tests in 2024

From the Heist of Hyderabad to a hiding in Hamilton.

Shoaib Bashir's visa, Ben Stokes' hamstring, Chris Woakes' off-spin and patio heaters. Two Ollie Robinsons, James Anderson and Josh Hull.

Across 17 Tests in 2024, England have veered from exhilarating to infuriating, often in the same session.

In credit, just, with three series wins to two and nine Test victories to eight.

The first-Test triumphs in India and Pakistan have all-time great status. Defeats in Dharamsala, Rawalpindi, by Sri Lanka at The Oval and this week in New Zealand, were downright dreadful. Twice beaten by more than 400 runs, a feat no other team has managed in the same calendar year. When England lose, they get mullered.

Stokes' men have the knack of winning series openers - all five of them this year - then fading like broken Christmas lights. Four finales lost, three dead rubbers treated like beer matches.

England's win-loss record is mitigated by eight Tests played in tough Asian conditions and the balance sheet looks healthier still given the revamp of personnel. For that reason, the value of England's 2024 may not be revealed for some time, well beyond a mouth-watering 2025.

Of 24 players used, seven have been debutants, most with success. England have lowered the age-profile of their team while keeping results stable.

Anderson, Robinson (the bowler), Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes and Dan Lawrence have been shown the exit. Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Jamie Smith and Jacob Bethell look here to stay. It is a contrast to the pension-pushing Australia team.

The pace bowling needed most surgery and ends as the most improved. It is one of Brendon McCullum's biggest achievements as coach to wean England off Anderson and Stuart Broad.

James Anderson ended his Test career with 704 wickets in 188 matches

For all of the skills of 'Branderson', the question of how they and England could take wickets on unresponsive overseas pitches hung around like what happened on Uncle Bryn's fishing trip. It is one of the reasons county bowlers are given the unwanted gift of a Kookaburra ball at various points in the English summer.

In his five Tests, Carse has taken more wickets (27) in a single winter than Anderson or Broad managed. Of all England bowlers to take at least 50 wickets, only one can better Atkinson's strike-rate, and that was George Lohmann, trundling in when Queen Victoria was on the throne.

This is not to say Atkinson and Carse are better bowlers than Anderson and Broad - far from it. They are different and maybe different is what England need. There will hopefully be firepower to add in 2025 as Mark Wood, Josh Tongue and Jofra Archer work their way back to fitness.

Bashir is a concern, regressing after a rapid rise. In Pakistan (helpful conditions) and New Zealand (much less so), his 17 wickets cost more than 50 apiece. At 21, he is learning on the job and needs a good home summer.

Overall, Bazball is about batting. It is the area of the England team that causes the most vociferous debate. Devastating at their best, the collective failures of England's batters have led to their most calamitous defeats.

Take Ben Duckett, for example. He is the first England opener to score more than 1,000 runs in a calendar year since Alastair Cook in 2016. A favourite McCullum trope is to point out that successful England openers get knighted. If we ignore Sirs Chef and Andrew Strauss, the last to pass 1,000 in a year was Marcus Trescothick in 2005.

By many measures, Duckett is a success, yet he is also the man who ran down the track and hacked Tim Southee onto his own stumps on the third evening in Hamilton. Perhaps we can't have one without the other. It is Bazball in microcosm.

While Duckett is not under pressure, his opening partner is. Zak Crawley is to Matt Henry what David Warner was to Broad. Crawley has not reached 30 in his past 10 knocks. Of all players to have at least 84 goes at opening the batting in Test cricket, as Crawley has, only ex-Zimbabwe batter Grant Flower has a worse average than Crawley's 29.59.

England are all-in on Crawley. Like the broken clock that is right twice a day, they are banking on his time to come against India and Australia. Given what he did to them at Old Trafford in 2023, Australia would be pretty pleased if Crawley is not walking out in Perth in a year's time.

Below Crawley, England's Ashes picture may have been shaped by a man born in Surrey, playing for New Zealand.

Will O'Rourke's terrifying spell on the fourth day in Hamilton was everything England can expect in Australia. Pace, bounce and hostility. It was best dealt with not by Joe Root or Harry Brook, the two best batters in the world, but 21-year-old Bethell.

In his three Tests, Bethell has shown a calmness at first-drop Ollie Pope would love to have. Before the Wellington Test, Stokes said he expected Pope to return to number three for the home summer. After Hamilton, McCullum had the opportunity to back Pope, only to say Bethell has given England a "headache". The rhetoric has changed.

Jacob Bethell scored 260 runs at an average of 52 in his debut series against New Zealand

An axing would be harsh on Pope given his stints standing in as captain and wicketkeeper this year, but England have form for making tough calls. In the last Ashes down under, Rory Burns was bowled from the first ball of the series.

If the same were to happen again next year, who would England want to be arriving at 0-1? Reading this, you're probably thinking of Root. In the likely absence of that option, Bethell feels like the coming man.

Whatever decisions England make, they will count for little if Stokes cannot get his left hamstring fit enough to function as all-rounder. A second ping in the space of five months is, at best, a warning he is not as bullet-proof as he once was.

The good news is in the days after hobbling off in Hamilton, Stokes has been moving freely. He may miss out on the payday of the SA T20 in the new year, yet has five months to get ready for England's next Test, against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge in May.

What the XI for that game looks like depends on the Indian Premier League commitments of Brook, Bethell and Carse. Given Archer is also going to the IPL, Zimbabwe is now surely too soon for his Test comeback. Smith will return. Wood should be fit, though England should be very selective over when he is unleashed.

The series against India and Australia will shape the legacy of the Stokes-McCullum era. England have the opportunity to win both. They are just as likely to fall in a heap. It is what makes them one of the most compelling teams in British sport.

"Just be excited about everything we've got coming up," said Stokes.

"Some great cricket is going to be played, some watchable cricket. It could be amazing," added McCullum.

England can be breathtaking, often exasperating. Flawed and unmissable.