Old Trafford is a place of renewal.

While the cricket ground is sprouting up with hotels and buildings that look like giant Scart lead goals, just down the road, within sight, are the familiar white beams of the football ground.

The Theatre of Dreams, whose leaky roof now needs repairing, was once synonymous with development. One of Sir Alex Ferguson’s many great skills was the ability to know when and how to put together a new team, even when he already had a championship-winning side.

How fitting, then, that it was in this corner of Manchester that the development of the English national cricket team came into such clear focus.

Unlike Ferguson, Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum did not have the luxury of rebuilding a winning team, but one that had only won once in its last 17 games. In just over two years, the management duo have turned around results and reshaped the squad. One probably begot the other.

Admittedly, due to a number of injuries, including to captain Stokes himself, some changes were necessary.

Yet England’s hard-fought first Test victory against Sri Lanka was without four players who have played at least 100 Test matches and have played in the last year or so: Stokes (thigh), Jonny Bairstow (out), Stuart Broad (voluntary retirement) and James Anderson (enforced retirement). It was the first time in 16 years that England were without at least one of the four players.

Add to that the rather ruthless dismissals of Ollie Robinson and Jack Leach, and England are an almost entirely different team to what they were during most of the Stokes era and since the Joe Root era.

Only three of the 11 in Manchester were over 30 and the team’s total of 343 appearances before the match was England’s lowest number in four years (going back to the first Test against West Indies in 2020). If one or both of Olly Stone and 20-year-old Josh Hull play in the second Test at Lord’s on Thursday, the total number of appearances will drop again.

With all due respect to the West Indies and Sri Lanka, the ‘unremarkable’ summer of 2024 may be seen in retrospect as the birth of a new England team.

Of the three new faces earmarked for key positions this summer – Gus Atkinson with the new ball, Shoaib Bashir as the lone spinner and Jamie Smith behind the stumps – each had their moment.

Atkinson took 11 wickets on his debut against West Indies at Lord’s and Bashir defeated the same opponents at Trent Bridge.

They clearly have great potential as international cricketers, but one cannot help but feel that Smith is the man to look forward to most.

He has ended the debate over the Bairstow and Ben Foakes wicketkeeping positions and has the potential to be England’s wicketkeeper for the next decade. Although he batted well – apart from a missed stumping and a no-ball for breaking the line with his gloves – it is Smith’s batting performance that makes us believe England have discovered a gem here.

At 24 years of age and playing only his fourth Test, Smith scored his first century from a difficult position in the first innings and then took the tension out of a tricky chase with an easy 39 in the second innings.

His stance is a little awkward, but everything that happens after the bowler releases the ball has the grace of Darcey Bussell. Solid defense, beautiful drives and quick pull shots.

Smith is remarkably poised for such a young and inexperienced cricketer. His celebration when he reached three figures at Old Trafford was little more than a wave of his bat towards the party box. Last year, on the same ground, Bairstow made 99 and practically climbed into the press box to argue.

England has not only developed in terms of personnel but also in its attitude.

In the early days of the Stokes and McCullum regimes, England needed the bazballing approach of the pair to win matches and revive some ailing cricketers who had survived the Covid era and uninspiring cricket under Root and coach Chris Silverwood.

It was McCullum who called for improvement after the 4-1 defeat in India and the English method was in full effect against Sri Lanka. The hosts scored over four per over with ease in the first innings and then showed their ability to hold on when the going got tough in the second innings.

Under the pressure of the scoreboard, on a difficult pitch against a skilful attack, even a Bazball poster boy like Harry Brook had the patience to slowly grind through at two per over. It was only when the game was won that the masterful Root attempted his trademark reverse scoop, only to receive a knock on the arm that reminded him that these were not the conditions for such playfulness.

As always, there are still issues to think about. Ollie Pope will be keen to show he can combine captaincy and running, and Dan Lawrence does not seem suited to replace Zak Crawley.

Mark Wood’s thigh injury has seen England’s fast bowler list slide down considerably: Anderson has been retired, Robinson has been dropped, Jofra Archer is unavailable, Josh Tongue, Jamie Overton and Dillon Pennington are injured and Brydon Carse is suspended. However, it is an opportunity for Hull to make an impression as the next new face in Test cricket.

Looking to the future, there is reason to be excited about England’s direction. Brook, Smith, Bashir and Atkinson have already arrived, Hull have a chance and there are plenty of young talents making waves in domestic football: Rehan and Farhan Ahmed, James and Thomas Rew, Rocky Flintoff, Jacob Bethell and Ben McKinney, to name just a few.

England’s future is fast approaching.