England's gruelling winter of 22 internationals may have ended with a defeat, but when Nasser Hussain is old and grey he'll look back on 2001-02 as a period in which his young side grew up more quickly than you can say "But Mr Cowie, I never touched it."

They hammered Zimbabwe 5-0 in the one-day series. They were caught cold on the first day of the Test series in India, but turned up the heat to give them a real fright at Ahmedabad and Bangalore. They came back from 3-1 down to square the one-dayers amid torso-baring scenes at Mumbai. They took a New Zealand side that had just toyed with the Aussies down to the one-day wire. And they held the Test series here in the palm of their hands before allowing it to slip through their fingers. Without wildly exceeding expectations, England have surprised a few people.

Their progress - slow but sure - is all the more meaningful because it was made with such an inexperienced side. When England went to India, they left behind Mike Atherton, Alec Stewart, Darren Gough, Andy Caddick and Robert Croft, which was 357 caps'-worth of old-pro savvy. But by the end of the winter England had made men out of Matthew Hoggard, Andrew Flintoff (first with the ball, then, spectacularly, with the bat), and had turned James Foster into a very handy No. 8, even if his wicketkeeping was still fallible. Hussain's next project is Warwickshire's 20-year-old middle-order batsman Ian Bell, who might even get a game in the forthcoming series at home to Sri Lanka if England feel that Mark Ramprakash has had one chance too many.

But there is still lots of work to be done. England collapsed at various stages in each of the six Tests, and can still conjure up a middle-order crisis from almost nowhere. And they lack the killer instinct that the best sides take for granted. At Ahmedabad, they got nowhere near to bowling India out on the last day. At Christchurch, New Zealand were nine down and more than 200 runs adrift but still made England sweat. At a crucial moment on the final day at Wellington, Foster dropped Stephen Fleming, who went on to deny England a series-clinching victory. And at Auckland, England had New Zealand 19 for 4 on the first morning but blew their advantage with some wayward bowling. A more ruthless, battle-hardened side would have won this series 3-0.

England ended the winter in fifth place in the ICC Test Championship, which is lower down than when they began. But this is misleading: the only sides they really need to fear now are Australia and South Africa. And when Gough returns for the English summer, they will have a seam attack of Caddick, Hoggard, Gough and Flintoff - bounce, swing, seam and hostility - that should be too good for Sri Lanka's batsmen in May.

Above all, England are playing as a team. The bad old days of behind-the-scenes squabbling, personal rivalries and politically motivated selections are inconceivable now. Hussain's greatest achievement over the last few months has been to mould a side who feel like friends and play for each other. Last winter, Hoggard and Flintoff teamed up to shift the sightscreen back and forth and save England vital time during the pitch-black run-chase at Karachi. This winter they grinned and guffawed as they shared eight wickets between them in India's first innings at Bangalore. If anyone sums up the progressive spirit in the England dressing-room, it's Hoggie and Freddie.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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