No hiding place as England again drink in last chance saloon

Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Ben Stokes By Stephan Shemilt Cricket Correspondent Published 12 minutes ago On Wednesday morning, in temperatures hot enough to make a statue sweat, England were training at Trent Bridge. A speaker was placed near the square and American rock band Fallout Boy formed part of the soundtrack. "Sugar, we're goin' down swinging'" might not have been an ideal choice given recent events in a London nightclub. Perhaps those lyrics reflect the mood in the camp after a fortnight that will live in English cricketing infamy. After all the talk of curfews, investigations and who is friends with who, England are once again in must-win territory. Level at 1-1 with New Zealand, without a series win in 18 months and owning only two victories in their past nine Tests. With the added context of everything that has been going on off the field, returning captain Ben Stokes said this is the "highest pressure" of his four years in charge. To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video can not be played Figure caption, Stokes on relationship with head coach McCullum How many times can England drink in the Last Chance Saloon? At 2-0 down in the home Ashes of 2023, this regime may have crumbled had England not won the third Test at Headingley. Surely someone would have carried the can if the away Ashes had been lost 5-0, a clean sweep avoided when England scraped a win in Melbourne. What if Sam Curran had not defended 10 runs in the final over against Nepal to avoid an all-timer of a shock at the T20 World Cup? Here we are again. It is not certain a loss in Nottingham will result with a head on a spike, though the noise that was deafening in the aftermath of the Ashes will be amplified again. How many defeats are too many? How much chaos is too much? When can a reset not be reset? Stokes was honest and almost emotional when he spoke on Wednesday, describing what he had been through in the past two weeks. If he looked flustered, he had just come from more than an hour batting in the nets. Some noticed the skipper only referred to his time as captain in the short term, with lots of mentions of "this week". He also said he loves being an England player and loves being captain, so it feels unlikely that a departure is imminent. Once again, Stokes was adamant there is no issue between him and head coach Brendon McCullum, echoing what McCullum said on Tuesday. Perhaps we must take that at face value. Both have said they are "good mates". But Stokes was not forthcoming when asked about the support he has or hasn't had from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). "It was a process that needed to be played out. The process has been played out," he said. At this point, it's important to stress the ECB have denied he was asked to resign the captaincy. When it was put to a senior source that someone wanted him out, the word used to rebuff the suggestion is unprintable. Neither ECB chief executive Richard Goul