Ben Stokes has been outstanding as captain but the next two series WILL define him, writes NASSER HUSSAIN
Ben Stokes knows that his England team will be judged on what happens in these two upcoming five-match Test series against India and Australia.
Because of the brand of cricket England have adopted, because of its rapid tempo and because of the swagger they have introduced to the most traditional form of the game, some people are simply waiting for them to fail.
And if they don't win this series against India starting at Headingley on Friday, and don't win the Ashes, there will be a lot of 'I told you so' from the people who said Bazball wouldn't work against the best.
Yes, South Africa have just won the World Test Championship by beating the Aussies at Lord's, but India and Australia have set the benchmark for the global game over the past 10 years.
Regardless of results for the remainder of 2025, though, if you asked me in 15 years' time, 'What did you think of Stokes as a captain?' my answer would be, 'Outstanding!'
For me, these next six months will not define him personally as much as it will define the regime of which he is a part alongside Rob Key and Brendon McCullum.
So far, their England team have been brilliant to watch, but if there is one thing you would ask them to address, it would be to act smarter in certain situations.
When they are ahead of the game, that is not necessarily the time to employ all-out attack, dead set on entertainment, thinking winning doesn't matter.
Capitalising on winning positions in these next 10 Tests is more important than ever because of the quality of the opposition, but at times they've got to be ruthless and not offer opponents their chance to pounce.
Under Stokes, England have overdone things at times, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, or failing to grind out a draw.
Stokes famously said he would never play for a draw when he took over, of course, but there may be a time in these next 10 Tests that a draw makes all the difference. You don't want to be looking back saying: if only we'd held on, we would have beaten India or won the Ashes. Nobody's asking them to be negative and defensive; they just have to be ruthless.
I'm a huge admirer of what Stokes has done as skipper. Remember, when he came in three years ago, England had won only one of their previous 17 Tests. His win percentage of 61 is exceptional and the way he has led the side… it's as good as anyone I've seen.
Yet it could have gone even better for England.
Poor batting at Lord's cost them the second Test against the Australians in 2023. Equally, but for rain at Old Trafford later that summer, he could easily have upped his number of wins and regained the Ashes for England.
Very few captains tick every box, but Stokes pretty much does. A bit like Mike Brearley, he has great emotional intelligence. People want to play for him and he gets that balance right in his dressing-room relationships.
Great leaders talk about being a friend to other players, but not their best friend. Stokes gets that pretty much spot-on.
He is the players' friend, but they're scared of crossing him because he's not their best friend and he will call them out if they haven't pulled their weight.
Tactically, he has great nous, and he leads from the front. Sometimes too much. At times he's over-bowled himself, and if he gets injured, England are a much poorer side without him.
If they are going to beat India and Australia, England need Stokes to be front and centre with his own contributions, and how he could do with rediscovering his form of 2019 with the bat.
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Colin Smart, the England prop matching his consumption, did so too, but Colclough, a prankster, had switched his liquid. Smart had not. Cue stomach pump. 'He'd gone in before, he'd tipped it out, he'd put white wine in,' Brogane says. 'What Dad said he thought would happen is he'd basically put it in and then spit it out.' At Brogane's wedding last year, every guest had a bottle of aftershave with limoncello in it. 'I actually think the one where he shot the bullet through the roof is better,' Brogane adds. That was on tour when a policeman came to quell rugby rowdiness and Colclough, thinking the safety was on, aimed at the ceiling. Maurice met Annie at Cardiff Arms Park and settled in south Wales. Both were entrepreneurial. He bought a trawler called the Picton Sea Eagle with plans to turn it into a floating restaurant. When in South Africa, he was involved in slot machines. 'I remember taking him to Cyril Ramaphosa's house,' Fen says. 'For business.' 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'Dad has never gone to see a head teacher before. Ever. He turned up in the school. He must have been in the office for 30 seconds. He came out, he's like, 'It's fine.' ' No one gets in the way of a Colclough and sports day. Such activities were far more important to Colclough than publicity. 'Head boy' Billy was captain on A Question of Sport and until recently chairman of World Rugby. Colclough was a player first and last, and the family agree that he would have known no trivia. 'He didn't have any real interest in celebrity,' Brogane says. Fen adds: 'Other people are more interested in rugby than he is. He would never watch it.' Freya tells another story: 'We went camping and fishing on his motorbike and I was on the back and we turned up at this camping site, just the two of us. We were just signing in and the man that was signing us in was like, 'Oh, Maurice Colclough, there used to be a famous rugby player called Maurice Colclough.' Dad said nothing and I was like, 'That's him!' 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Rugby, again, as the gateway to the man. His approach to life continues fivefold through the women on a street in Blaenavon. 'I think about it more and more now — there is so much of Dad in all of us,' Brogane says. 'I feel like I've got that tin-of-beans-on-someone's-head energy.' Oh yes, the beans on the head. Well, that's a story for another time.
