Brendon McCullum wants England Test team to reconnect with fans

It was in London two weekends ago, prior to a training camp in Loughborough, that the England Test squad got together to delve into how they are perceived by their supporters.

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The conversation ultimately centred around the need to be smarter with their comments in the media, something Rob Key stuck high on the agenda back in March. The men's managing director was sifting through the wreckage of the Champions Trophy when he dropped in that it did not help that players were "talking a lot of rubbish". Ben Duckett's comments that defeat in the preceding series to India did not matter (it did) provided England won the tournament (they didn't) was seemingly the straw that did for the camel's back.

That, along with the team's golf kink, has been a regular topic of conversation in lieu of any international cricket. And it is perhaps because of the discourse that, on the cusp of the men's home summer - beginning with Thursday's one-off Test match against Zimbabwe that leads into a crucial eight months featuring a five-match India series and the winter's Ashes the group themselves decided to indulge in some meaningful introspection.