ISLAMABAD — England’s players looked like they had one eye on their flights home during the nine-wicket hammering in Rawalpindi. And that’s probably not unrelated to the fact it was their 14th Test out of 17 this year.

Nobody in the world, not even India, plays more cricket than England. Just look at the schedule this week. As the Test squad lands back home, a white-ball tour of the Caribbean will have already begun.

Exactly one week after the start of the final Test here in Pakistan last Thursday, England play the first one-day international in Antigua. No wonder there is little overlap between the squads.

In all England will play 42 matches across all three formats in 2024. Of the 14 Tests played so far this year they have won exactly half.

This schedule is easing somewhat heading into next year, a key reason why Test coach Brendon McCullum will also assume control of the white-ball teams from January.

But the sheer number of games has to be considered when analysing England’s performance across the year.

They have only ever played as many as 17 Tests once before – back in 2016. No team has ever played as many in the T20 era and only one in history has ever played more, India in 1983.

It’s why meltdowns like the second innings in Rawalpindi last week are more likely. It is also why England have been without key players for periods this year.

A hamstring injury meant captain Ben Stokes missed the three Sri Lanka Tests at the end of the summer and the first match of this series in Pakistan. Mark Wood, thanks to bone stress in his elbow, missed this entire tour and will not be available for the three-match series in New Zealand that starts next month either.

The good news is that England’s Test schedule is relatively light heading into next winter’s Ashes in Australia – the series the whole Bazball era is likely to be judged on.

So dialling back the number of games – there will be just six Tests for England in 2025 before the Ashes and 10 in total during the year – is good news.

Indeed, there will be a five-month break between the end of the New Zealand tour in December and the first Test of the summer against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge in May. Five more Tests against India follow and although that is a huge series, England should have a refreshed and fully fit pool of players to pick from for it.

Among those, if all goes well, will be Jofra Archer, for whom the lighter schedule should aid his return to Test cricket.

The fast bowler could prove the difference maker Down Under and, if he can be paired with Wood in the same attack, it might be the key to England winning their first away Ashes series in 15 years.

That will take some doing but with the calendar easing, they should have a better chance of producing their best cricket when the Ashes start in Perth on 21 November next year.