The England Test captain insists his team's attacking approach will not change as they attempt to "rewrite" how the longest format is played
Ben Stokes says England's Test team will be defined by their bravery after storming to a fourth consecutive win over India at Edgbaston.
Centurions Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow helped complete a record-breaking chase of 378 on day five of the fifth Test to maintain the winning start to Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum's tenures in charge.
Each victory during their premiership has been secured via bold fourth-innings chases, an early trademark of the 'Bazball' era.
South Africa and Pakistan await in the longest format before the end of 2022 and Stokes has indicated that even if results change, the team's instincts will not alter.
"When you've got real clarity in what you want to achieve as a team and how you want to play it makes things a lot easier," he told Test Match Special.
"We know what we were going to do -- we knew we were always going to go out and try and chase that down from the get-go.
"A great way to explain is that teams are perhaps better than us, but teams won't be braver than us.
"Jack Leach said that to me and it is a great way to sum things up at the moment."
England took down targets of 277, 299 and 296 against New Zealand before their biggest fourth-innings score to win a Test against India to square the series.
That approach with the bat has been mirrored in the field, with Stokes deploying attacking fields, packing the slip cordon, in the search of wickets.
Stokes once again has Root and Bairstow to thank for inspiring another fourth-innings chase (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)
Upon his appointment as head coach, McCullum said England had a responsibility to uphold the reputation of Test cricket and bring new life to the longest format.
And it is clear that his skipper agrees.
"We are trying to rewrite how Test cricket is being played, in England especially," Stokes added.
"All the different plans that we put together over the last four or five weeks, for every different situation is something we'll look to carry forward.
"It's not always about bowling top of off or drying up, it's how are we going to take wickets? That's what you need to do as a bowling attack, take 10 wickets.
"We know that we want to give new life to Test cricket, and the way that we go about it, and the support that we've received over the last five weeks has been incredible.
"It's amazing, in such a short space of time, we feel like we are bringing a new set of fans to the game.
"Inspiring the next generation is what we want to do, this game at the moment is bigger than results for us, it's about people who come in to represent England in the future, guys who come into the dressing room after. We want to leave a mark on Test cricket."
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