England start Stokes-McCullum era with a whitewash over New Zealand

(Cricket news) New look England have started the Stokes-McCullum era with a 3-0 whitewash against World Test Champions New Zealand. It was almost a perfect series for England as they completely outplayed the visitors. Joe Root and Daryl Mitchell were named players of the series. Root scored 396 runs in what was his first series since stepping down as captain. Daryl Mitchell had an incredible tour as he scored 538 runs but unfortunately for him all for losing cause. Trent Boult picked up 16 wickets while Matty Potts in his first international series got 14 scalps.

England's batting line-up is looking so much more settled now. There were some doubts of Ollie Pope's promotion to number 3 but the batter played really well. Johnny Bairstow had a brilliant tournament as he scored 394 runs with an unbelievable strike rate of 120.12. He scored 2 hundreds and a fifty in 6 innings. James Anderson and Stuart Broad returned to the side and picked up right where they left off with solid performances. Jack Leech after a few tours of underwhelming performances did a decent job as the sole spinner in the side. 

The main takeaway from the series was England's approach which was aggressive and always with a win in mind. England's next red ball game will be the postponed last Test against India. The home side are trailing 2-1 and could tie it 2-2 with a win. Both sides will have a different side and a different captain then the last time. It will be a very interesting encounter between two ruthless and aggressive Test teams. India do have a few injury and COVID-19 issues which could give England a slight advantage but India will definitely come all guns blazing.

Also read: Takeaways from Indian women's T20I series win over Sri Lanka

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