Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have completely transformed England's Test team since taking charge earlier this year, masterminding nine wins in ten over New Zealand, India, South Africa and now Pakistan.
The pair have created an environment which encourages positive and aggressive cricket and has attempted to remove the fear of failure. And Stokes has revealed that as soon as McCullum's name was mentioned to him as a potential coach, he knew the 41-year-old was the "best person" to help him fulfil his England vision.
"I didn't realise me and Baz would be so aligned," Stokes told Sky Sports. "Sometimes they say opposites attract, but maybe that's not the right thing with captains and coaches!
"He's been unbelievable. He's got to take a huge amount of credit for believing in me, believing in the way I want to go about this and also installing that belief into the players as much I've tried to do as well.
"He's very simple, very straight to the point with the way he speaks and leaves no questions unanswered in anybody's head. As soon as his name was brought up in conversation before we named the coach, I was like 'yeah we need to get Brendon McCullum'.
"I obviously had a way that I felt would be good for English cricket to go forward and I knew that Brendon was the best person in the world to help me do that." McCullum, meanwhile, hailed Stokes as a "maverick" and "genius", telling Sky Sports : "This side is very much in the image of Stokesy.
"He wants the guys to go out there and play with the most amount of freedom they can. He's got the benefit of a long and distinguished career behind him and he's at that stage of his life where he wants to do something significant and make a real impact, not just on the game, but on other people's careers.
"He's identified that taking away that pressure and that fear of failure allows the talent and skills to come out. All we try and do is remain consistent with the messaging, have a smile on your face and no matter whether things work out or they don't just be consistent with those conversations and encourage guys to allow their talent to come out without that fear of failure.
"We've seen what [Stokes] does on the field, there's maverick and genius in him. It's the man management, the consistency of message and the pure passion and drive he's got to make a significant difference in cricket which is most impressive. I feel incredibly lucky that I've taken over this job when Stokesy has got the reins and he's only going to get better and better which is quite scary."
