Almost everything Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes have touched since becoming England test coach and captain has turned to gold, but defeat in the first Ashes test against Australia has seen a swift questioning of the leadership duo.
Playing an aggressive, uptempo style of cricket dubbed 'Bazball' - against the former NZ captain's wishes - England had won 11 of their previous 13 tests.
Those two defeats came against South Africa - where McCullum said his players didn't play aggressive enough - and New Zealand, who famously won at Wellington's Basin Reserve, after being asked to follow-on.
Questions over whether England's approach would work against Australia's quality have partly been answered, as the world test champions took a 1-0 lead in the five-test series.
With the series condensed into six weeks to meet a dearth of white-ball cricket at the end of England's summer, McCullum and Stokes won't have long to change tack, should they divert from aggression above all else.
In part, Stokes' decision to declare on day one, with England at 393/8 and with Joe Root unbeaten on 118, has become a focal point of criticism for England's loss.
"I was absolutely flabbergasted by that [declaration]," former England batter Mark Butcher told Wisden. "Great theatre and all the rest of it, wonderful, but how much would England have liked another 50 runs on top of their target as of right at this minute?
"Playing fast and loose with totals in the first innings, when time is very much on your side in test matches... I understand it in games where you're trying to put time back in, but at that point on day one of a Test match? Wow, what a decision that is."
The decision hasn't just been questioned in England.
"It was a brilliant test match set up by England's ultra-attacking approach, but Bazball might be in danger of pushing the boundaries of cricketing commonsense too far," wrote Malcolm Conn of the Sydney Morning Herald.
McCullum's record as a player has also come under the microscope, particularly his poor record against the Aussies
"Meanwhile, let's just remind ourselves of McCullum's playing record against Australia - one win, 13 defeats and a trouncing in a World Cup final," wrote the Guardian's Jonathan Liew.
"Perhaps it is too much of a simplification to say England play cricket as they would like it to be, while Australia play the game that actually exists, but it was certainly true here.
"Now comes the real test. Do England want to wake up or do they want to keep dreaming?"
Not all reaction has been against the decision to declare. After a poor period that led to McCullum's appointment last year, England's positivity in the face of their opponents has been heralded for the better part of the past year.
In Pakistan, England hit more than 500 in a single day - a test cricket record.
With the potential for that kind of theatre, the occasional defeat is something England are prepared to accept on the Bazball rollercoaster.
"Maybe that declaration cost England the game, but we will never know," wrote Oliver Holt of the Daily Mail. "Anyway, this is the way England play now.
"We have cursed them in the past for caution. Let us not curse them now for being a team that makes our hearts leap."
Both sides have a week before the second test at Lord's.
