England originally planned to announce their squad for their tri-match in New Zealand immediately after the third Test in Rawalpindi, but have opted to let the dust settle and will wait until early next week to do so. But Stokes and Brendon McCullum certainly hinted that there are unlikely to be major changes to their batting line-up.

“They are the best players in England,” Stokes told Pakinomist. “We play all over the world and going to New Zealand in a few weeks will be completely different [to Pakistan]. But there is no doubt in my mind, no doubt in Brendon’s mind, that we have the best top-six players in England.

“You can’t close the door on everything, because then you’re just very determined about what you want. But back to the point before, there’s no doubt that we’ve got the best top-six batsmen in England Sometimes guys will reap the rewards of performing well in the middle and unfortunately some other guys will miss out.

McCullum gave a clear indication that Pope will be retained as the No. 3 despite his lean run. “It’s not an easy place to hit at No.3,” he told the BBC. “I know Popey will be disappointed with the amount of runs he got in this series but I expect him to come back strong in New Zealand and we will make sure he has the support around him to to do it.

“Obviously Popey has had a bit of a rough ride in terms of his output of runs… [but] we know that when Popey comes in, he makes big scores – and makes defining scores too… We have a pretty good idea of ​​what the make-up of the squad will be for New Zealand, given the conditions that we will be facing with.”

Stokes also admitted that England’s finger-spinners had been overtaken by Pakistan’s on favorable surfaces, but claimed they had still done “a fantastic job”. Across the second and third Tests, Sajid Khan and Noman Ali took 39 wickets between them at a combined average of 17.38, while Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach managed 17 wickets at 35.47.

“The difference between [the teams in] these two matches were the understanding of how to bowl in these conditions the Pakistani spinners showed, but that doesn’t take anything away from how our spinners have played in this series,” Stokes said. “I think they have done a fantastic job to accept. the wickets they have made.

“Shoaib in particular, I told him the other day: ‘You’re going to learn on the job here. You get to learn about yourself as a bowler through the test match. You’re able to figure out how to bowl in different conditions at different stages of the game and how exciting, how good is that?’ He absolutely loves it.”

Stokes himself returned from a torn hamstring in the second Test and did not bowl a ball in the third but insisted he was fully fit. “I worked very, very hard to get back for the second Test,” he said. “I just didn’t feel like my bowling was going to be nearly as threatening as it was [other] opportunities we had… in terms of my fitness with me not bowling, that has nothing to do with it.”

England’s first of three Tests in New Zealand starts on 27 November in Christchurch, with the team arriving in time to play a warm-up match in Queenstown on 23-24. November. Their white-ball team leaves Great Britain on Monday ahead of three ODIs and five T20Is against the West Indies.