There was always something of John Cleese’s Sir Lancelot about Ben Stokes, ever eager for a flamboyant rescue mission in his own particular, as Lancelot puts it, idiom. Leave no chandelier unswung, no buckle unswashed. He would charge in, gung-holier than thou, and work out the damage later. ‘When I’m in this idiom, I sort of get carried away,’ Lancelot apologises after massacring all the guests at a wedding.

 At times, it was glorious. But often, increasingly so in the second half of his England captaincy, ghastly. ‘Incredible highs and pretty low lows’ was Stokes’s own assessment – and we will always be grateful for the highs. But as England rebuild, they need to consider the manner of those lows and how many were self-inflicted.

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Their 2-1 defeat by New Zealand was the first time England had been beaten at home in a series of three Tests or more for 14 years. They have lost seven of their past nine Tests, including an Ashes walloping that began with a two-day defeat in Perth. They have forgotten how to bat long in order to control a match. Eight times in the past year they have been all out within 60 overs.

 Stokes’s last knock epitomised the brainlessness. Set 373 to win match and series, Sir Lancelot’s idiom took over and he promoted himself to open in a mission to........

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