Matt Maher: Brendon McCullum and Eoin Morgan are on the same page

His first weeks as head coach of the England Test team could hardly have gone better.

A 3-0 series whitewash of his home nation and reigning world champions New Zealand would have been notable enough in itself.

The manner of England’s victories, however, was simply astonishing. Take your pick of the eye-popping stats but the fact the home side scored more than 650 runs in what equated to little more than four sessions of cricket (121.2 overs, to be precise) was perhaps the standout.

“The alarm bells have probably gone off around world cricket as to how this team is going to play,” said McCullum. He is surely right.

Of course, it won’t all be plain sailing. An England team which features many players who floundered so badly in Australia and the West Indies haven’t become world-beaters overnight. There will inevitably be bumps in the road ahead, with this weekend’s match against India at Edgbaston potentially one of them.

Yet the instant impact of McCullum and new captain Ben Stokes does serve as a reminder of the extent to which sport is played in the head. There was maybe something fitting such a remarkable renaissance in red-ball cricket coincided with the decision of the man who helped revive their white-ball fortunes to exit the stage.

Eoin Morgan inherited the captaincy of England’s limited-overs teams when they were close to a laughing stock, just months from an embarrassing group stage exit at the 2015 World Cup.

The turnaround from that low point was swift. England passed 400 for the first time in their very next match and never looked back, Morgan introducing a confident, attacking style of play modelled, significantly, on the style of New Zealand under the captaincy of McCullum.

Naturally, there were setbacks. No team can win all the time. But while it may seem simplistic, Morgan’s refusal to waver from his convictions undoubtedly helped establish England as one of the best limited overs teams in the world over the last seven years.

Having McCullum, a man with similar clarity of thought at the helm in the longer format of the game, should only serve them well.