By Will Jackson
It has not been an easy summer for England on the back of a difficult Ashes tour and subsequent transition period. However the development of young players has left many feeling optimistic for the future.
Players such as Gary Ballance, Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Jos Buttler and Joe Root have all enjoyed breakthroughs in the international summer, which included an excellent 3-1 Investec Test series victory over India.
With an overhaul of the backroom and playing staff in the winter, which saw Peter Moores take the post of head coach for the second time, the summer was always likely to be a tough one and the players and fans alike were left with no illusions after a hard-fought 1-0 Test loss to Sri Lanka in June.
Sam Robson and Liam Plunkett were others new to this England set-up to make important contributions early in the summer, notably in the Sri Lanka Tests.
On the back of defeat to Sri Lanka – their first Test series win in England – Alastair Cook's team faced a lot of pressure.
The manner of the fightback proved the doubters wrong however. Cook began to rediscover his midas touch with the bat and in the field. His senior players followed suit, allowing the youngsters to flourish on the greatest stage in what was a thrilling comeback against India.
One such youngster was Buttler. Matt Prior, a stalwart of the strong England sides in recent years, was forced to take a break through injury after defeat at Lord's, giving the Lancashire gloveman his chance in Test cricket.
Having proved his class with a stunning 61-ball century at Lord's in an otherwise disappointing Royal London One-Day Series against Sri Lanka, Buttler was fast becoming the man everybody wanted to see don the whites. That became a reality when Prior was forced from the side.
The electrifying Buttler breathed new life into the team and perhaps showed the way forward for England.
His brand of fearless cricket changed what had become one of the main concerns for Cook's men – that they often squandered their positions when it came to key moments in the game.
Gone was the fear of failure, and in its place we saw a rampant England side who ground their opponents into the dirt.
While England's resurgence in the latter part of the summer was remarkable, India's decline following the win at Lord's was equally startling.
The much-vaunted batting line-up failed to fire in alien conditions, with Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara unable to live up to their lofty reputations, giving England a way back into the series.
James Anderson had endured some highs and lows in the summer, falling devastatingly short of a heroic match-saving knock against Sri Lanka at Headingley before sharing a world-record partnership with Root at Trent Bridge. But at the Ageas Bowl, he did what he does best just when Cook needed him to.
For the second half of the series, Anderson and Stuart Broad were almost unplayable, but it was the progress of Moeen that made the biggest impact on the side.
The Worcestershire man had been picked as a part-time off-spinner, but improved so drastically he became a key man in the attack as the ghost of Graeme Swann were banished with 19 wickets in the series.
Big wins at Emirates Old Trafford and the Kia Oval sealed a 3-1 triumph for England, Root emerging with over 700 runs in the summer to mark him out as one of the key figures in the future of English cricket.
The subsequent one-day series with India went the way of the world champions but the whole England set-up will take a lot of heart from the Tests, which could prove to be a watershed moment in English cricket.
The story of the summer was undoubtedly the emergence of the next generation, and how they immediately settled into the international arena.
There is plenty of life left in some of the older legs yet, though, and if they can continue the improvements shown in the second half of the summer against India, the 2015 Ashes series should be a far closer affair than the 5-0 defeat suffered last winter.