The boys are back in town and dad’s away to boot. It’s a free house party.

For the first time since the 2019 Cricket World Cup final, almost three years ago to the day, England’s legendary ODI batting line-up will be at full strength for their three-match series against India, starting today at The Oval.

Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes will combine once more. The all-star band are back together to play their greatest hits, only this time with a different front man and Liam Livingstone is coming in on drums. It’s a purpose-built boy-band designed with only one thing in mind, to reach number one. Cricket’s One Direction.

With Eoin Morgan having made the transition to the big commentary box in the Sky, it’s confirmed, both fittingly and frustratingly, that that final in 2019 was the last time the fabled top six of Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan, Buttler and Stokes would take the field together. Perhaps the most power-packed batting line-up in ODI history signed off at Lord’s in the golden glow, and we didn’t even have a clue.

It is an example of how rarely the teams we idolise and build up in our minds actually play together. Since that final in 2019 England have played 21 ODIs, and through injury, Covid, bubble fatigue, the vernal equinox not being quite so, the cast has never in that time fully come together.

The XI that took the field together at Lord’s in 2019 had done so only five times previously and would never do so again. So too with England’s iconic Ashes winners in 2005. The moments we consider to be the beginning of an era can often actually symbolise their end. Which is why when the chance to appreciate a team at the peak of their powers arrives, it is one that must be savoured. Finally, the stars off the pitch have aligned to allow the stars on the pitch to do so again. Cherish it, because it’s precious.

In Root, Bairstow and Buttler, England have three batters who can all make legitimate claims of being the best player in the world. Root in red-ball, Buttler in white and Bairstow, given his current form, in whichever he chooses, and perhaps even across all three.

Behind those three players you have Roy, who recently won his 100th ODI cap and comes at you harder than any of them, Stokes, who is none other than The Ben Stokes, and relative newbie Livingstone, who also owns the record of the fastest ever international hundred scored by an Englishman and was the most expensive overseas signing ahead of this year’s IPL. Somehow, Morgan, once the lone wildcard in a staid ODI batting line-up, has left the scene, and England have only become more dangerous.

This is a team comprised solely of frontmen, as if Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, Mick Jagger and Roger Daltrey teamed up and decided to play a game of cricket.

And the good news for us is that this is the start of a year-long tour. With 2020 largely lost to Covid and 2021 and 2022 back-to-back T20 World Cup years, the fifty-over format has been placed on the back burner. Simmering away to the point of being forgotten.

Now, with the next 50-over World Cup a little over a year away, the format is returning to the attention of international sides, with England’s group readying themselves for the next push. And perhaps the last push too.

2023 will surely be almost all of this line-up’s final World Cup. By the time of the following competition in 2027, Roy, Bairstow, Root, Buttler, and Stokes will all be between 36 and 38. The next generation is already coming up strong. For these players, what will there be left to achieve after 2023? Would four more years of bilateral series really have the same attraction with workloads the way that they are and T20 paychecks available elsewhere.

But don’t think too hard about that. Instead focus on what’s in front of us right now. Six ODIs against India and South Africa, two worthy opponents, and then a year of fine-tuning and fiddling as England attempt to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Enjoy the finest batting line-up this country has ever seen, with the rare privilege of being able to enjoy an era whilst it’s still going, as opposed to having to reminisce about it once it’s gone.