The Trent Bridge Take, delivered by Ambassador Cruise Line, is our alternative view of proceedings at the Test.

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English cricket does love a good bit of introspection.

There are the frequent musings over selection. Who should open the batting? Who is the long-term number three? Who takes the new ball? Who is the spinner? In fact, should we pick a spinner at all?

There is the oft-debated domestic structure. How do the formats fit together away from the glitz and glam of the international stage? How many Championship matches should be played? When is the optimal window for the Blast? What is the role of the One Day Cup?

And then there are the reviews after series losses. Usually, those are most prominent and most far-reaching after an Ashes humbling down under, but they rear their heads after other defeats too. Who should take the blame? What needs to change? Is everyone’s job safe?

Now, there’s likely to be another one of those reviews, just a few months after the last.

Notwithstanding the need for a new captain, and who that will be is anyone’s guess, everything feels like it’s now under the microscope after five enthralling days at Trent Bridge ended in a high-quality victory for New Zealand.

The Land of the Long White Cloud, with a population comparable to that of Scotland - or, in other words, less than a tenth of England’s numbers - have done it again. In 2021, they were responsible for the Three Lions’ last home series defeat. Now, they have inflicted another.

In all honesty, though, the events on the field were of secondary focus to all that was swirling around in the background.

This was Ben Stokes’s last day as an England cricketer. One of the nation’s greatest to ever play this sport, with more than 10,000 international runs and 350 wickets, is heading into the sunset.

Unfortunately for England, the sun was still around eight hours from setting by the time they were bundled out to hand New Zealand victory, and a series win, on day five.

On the face of it, the hosts’ requirement of another 270 runs in one day to snatch an evenly-poised series was a reasonably achievable, if slightly challenging ask.

That was before the fact they were already four down with only 103 on the board was considered, and the Trent Bridge surface - one that had produced an at times-unmissable spectacle - was now breaking up following five intense days.

Most cruelly, one of those four batters already back in the changing rooms was Stokes himself. This was his swansong, his departure from the game, and it was a harsh twist of fate that he would not take to the field on the final day.

As it was, despite Jamie Smith’s gutsy half-century, the hosts survived only to lunch before eventually being dismissed for 212, handing the Black Caps a 160-run win.

This, the most enthralling and closest Test of the three-match series between two nations on opposite sides of the planet to one another, produced a result that leaves one side celebrating and the other searching.

The only Englishman who knows what he will definitely be doing in the near future is Stokes, who, upon announcing his retirement yesterday, revealed his plans to visit a safari park sleepover experience with his young family.

While Stokes enjoys a well-earned retirement, starting out by being surrounded by rhinos, English cricket is once again looking inward.

What it discovers this time, and where it goes from here, is entirely unclear.

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