A quote from Mark Ramprakash’s latest Guardian piece about Moeen Ali sort of reads as if it’s an exasperated criticism, but maybe we’re doing him a disservice and it is indeed an admiring tip of the hat. Because man-management-wise, this is surely quite the result…

“Has anyone ever come into an England squad with such a laissez-faire attitude, with no expectation, no pressure and no particular desire to be selected again in the future?”

They insist they don’t care about results, that it’s all about having fun, entertaining and playing freewheeling aggressive cricket. But of course they care about winning. They care desperately. It’s the job of the management to take the pressure off, as Morgan and Bayliss did with the white ball team. It’s an attempt to reverse the ‘fear of failure’ culture which permeated England sides for so long.

I would love to read an in-depth examination of how to convince players that something they have worked for their entire lives doesn’t really matter at all.

On the same topic, in last week’s Champions League final, Pep Guardiola was spotted screaming and gesticulating at his players to ‘Relax! RELAX!!’ Not sure whether it worked. But the blue team won the cup.