Ben Stokes had no hesitation about staying on as England's Test captain despite admitting he dwelled on the disastrous Ashes series for longer than he liked.
Stokes' position as Test skipper came under scrutiny following a chastening trip down under as England were convincingly swatted aside by Australia in a 4-1 defeat.
Whilst the scoreline was humiliating enough, the nature of England's loss in the Ashes drew widespread criticism with the tour derailed by accusations of unprofessionalism off the field, which included Harry Brook's incident with a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand.
There was suggestion of a rift between Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum in the series, and reports later revealed the pair were critical of one another during the ECB's internal review.
However, Stokes later played down talk of a disagreement and insisted they both remain aligned as they plot a route back to winning ways ahead of the upcoming Test summer.
The weeks after the Ashes defeat provided Stokes with plenty of time for personal reflection, and although the 34-year-old admitted it was arguably the toughest period of his career, the Durham all-rounder was adamant he wanted to play a leading role in England's rebuild.
Stokes told the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB): "I thought I had sort of gone into those places before but after Australia, oh my gosh. It was pretty extreme.
"I was getting worried initially because I couldn't stop thinking about Australia and the Test summer coming up. It just completely and utterly consumed me.
"I would be able to switch off from it for half an hour, but then something else would make me get my iPad out and start writing down notes. I'd never experienced that before.
"In the end, I was able to turn it around and thought the fact I'm so consumed by trying to make sure we do things in the future to potentially stop a series like Australia from happening again, for me that's a positive and proves just how much I still want to do this, how much I'm still eager to do the role as England captain and be a part of English cricket moving forward.
"If I'd got back and completely shut myself away from it, didn't pay any interest and and waited for other people to make decisions for me - if I'm gone, I'm gone - then I'd think that's me subconciously believing I didn't really want this.
"But I think the fact I was how I was for the first week, two weeks after Australia then yes, I'm properly in this still."
How England go about the summer's visit of New Zealand will be particularly interesting, especially after Stokes demanded a philosophical shift from the accustomed 'Bazball' style midway through the Ashes series.
Instead of the usual aggressiveness with the bat, Stokes wanted his players to take better care of their wicket, and the result was a bewildering performance where England's top order were stuck in the middle of endeavour and conservatism. England eventually lost the Test in Adelaide, which sealed the series defeat.
Despite the change of tack, Stokes insisted that both he and McCullum are on the same page.
Stokes added: “I’m very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together, because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now. But work together in a slightly different way.
“The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be. That’s always been the thing since we started.
“It might just look a little bit different now to how that operates – on the back of four years working together. We still want to win everything, and we still want to give the guys the best chance that they possibly can of being as good as they can be.”
