Settings can inspire cricketers as much as artists. The very sight of the Melbourne Cricket Ground has been enough to stir Sir Donald Bradman and Steve Smith - yes, after the latest Ashes, they can be mentioned in the same sentence - to score either a century or a double. Alastair Cook also enjoyed the ground in late December, scoring 244 not out, though England’s fragile T20 batting managed little more than half that number during their seven-wicket defeat by Australia in the tri-series.

But settings can disturb as well as inspire. Former England captain Nasser Hussain never felt at home at Old Trafford, and the more he played there the worse it got and he ended with a Test average of 9.16. And on Tuesday evening England will find out if the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, colloquially known as the Cake Tin, disturbs them in a similar way.

For it was there, in the last World Cup, that England were walloped as never before or since in one-day cricket. They have had more ignominious defeats - by Bangladesh a fortnight later in the same World Cup of 2014-15, as one of many examples, or by the Netherlands at Lord’s in 2010 - but none more comprehensive than that by New Zealand under Brendon McCullum. England went into the Cake Tin and came out a dried-out souffle which had failed to rise.