The England Test coach, Brendon McCullum, talked about the rationale for the team alterations.

Just four players from the first Test of the Bazball era against New Zealand at Lord's in the summer of 2022 remained from the team that completed the rout of the West Indies: Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Ollie Pope, and Zak Crawley. James Anderson's forced retirement and the absence of important Bazball players like Jonny Bairstow, Ben Foakes, and Jack Leach meant that McCullum had to concede that adjustments were needed, especially after the crushing 1-4 loss to India earlier in the season.

"Coming into the series we knew we need to make a couple of improvements to continue to improve as a side. We brought in some new faces and some guys that have shown that they're very comfortable at international level, and until you give some people opportunity, you don't know right?,” McCullum said.

"What we've seen from Gus Atkinson, from Shoaib Bashir and Jamie Smith - these guys have shown that international cricket is where they belong and they've performed accordingly. It's really satisfying from that point of view, but also the growth of the side in general."

For the West Indies series, the side brought in new players, notably fast bowler Gus Atkinson, spinner Shoaib Bashir, and wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith. All of them played incredibly well, leading to a series rout at Edgbaston.

"Keep in mind that the guys who have been in there before did a really good job for us. It's certainly no slight on them, but we felt that we needed to introduce some new guys, and guys with skill-sets which would complement the rest of the guys in our line-up,” McCullum added.

"We opted for that and you hope they go well, and you don't ask for instant gratification when it comes to those. But the way the series played out, you'd say the guys have performed and certainly shown they're good enough at this level."