Back in action six months after a dismal Ashes campaign, England must not only win Test matches this summer but also hearts and minds.

Fans are loyal. Most England cricket followers can accept defeat. Indeed they are accustomed to it in away Ashes series. They kept cheering in Australia and have paid top dollar for Test tickets this summer, which have sold well. Thousands are flocking to Cape Town at the turn of the year for a bucket-list Test at Newlands, despite the South African authorities’ desire to make a quick rand from travelling Brits.

But this England side under Brendon McCullum have always had their detractors. Even in those heady early days, there was a yeasty whiff of Marmite about their style of play and public pronouncements.

In Australia, a vocal minority expanded, with attitudes hardening as errors racked up. What stuck in the craw for so many was the sense of an opportunity squandered through hubris and a lack of seriousness. England did not make the most of their abundant ability.

They made Ethelred look poised and prepared, failed to learn from past failures, and even lacked basic standards of professionalism, whether in their skinny backroom staff or off-field indulgence. Bazball had once seemed a breath of fresh air. By Sydney, fresh air had been exposed as hot air. A review that saw no senior heads roll only added to the public bemusement.

The upshot is that at Lord’s on Thursday, “Operation Build Bridges” begins. Whether for on-field performances or off-field behaviour, almost every player has a point to prove. Perhaps only Joe Root, who has an extraordinary 41 Test hundreds, is the exception. The rest are either on the up, like Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue, or proven but out of form, like captain Ben Stokes and Ben Duckett. Others, like Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith, are somewhere in between.

The first non-negotiable is to perform to their ability, and be a team who are at least the sum of their parts, unlike in Australia. If they do that, they should win both series against New Zealand and Pakistan this summer, even if they drop a game or two. They have not lost a three-match series at home since Andrew Strauss’s last Test in 2012. English cricket has wealth, facilities and power. They should generally be good, and win more than they lose. They also have home advantage.

Mark Butcher, the former England batsman, said last week that winning was the be-all and end-all this summer.

“Everybody seems to be asking for Brendon McCullum to volte face in the type of person he is,” Butcher said on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast. “I keep seeing people say the team needs to reconnect with the public. It really doesn’t. The team needs to play Test cricket of the type that will a) win them games and b) reflect the quality of players they have to choose from. Do all of those things and you will look after the relationship between the team and the public.

“One thing that is incredibly important and was true when I was playing, and in the era before mine, and any era since, is that you can only win media and public approval if you win. End.”

But optics and language matter. It is possible for a team to win and be unpopular. At the end of England’s extraordinary era of success under Strauss and then Alastair Cook, around 2013, there was a sense of that brewing. Far rarer is the cricket team who do not win much and remain popular with their fans. England’s popularity dwindled this winter mainly because they were losing, but also in part because of how they were doing it and what they were saying.

“They will understand that they need to get results, play well and show that it means a lot to them,” Butcher said. “One of the things that has been levelled at them from the Ashes is that they didn’t care enough. That nobody gave a monkey’s and they were like the pub XI on a Sunday. None of that is true. They just didn’t PR themselves very well.”

Butcher is right: it is not fair to accuse them of not caring. They did, and defeat hurt them. But the operation was poorly organised and they did not always do the best job of portraying their passion.

Across the first two months of the English summer, with the dust settled on the review, the worm has started to turn. The management has largely made the right noises.

Shortcomings have been addressed: a curfew is in place as part of a new social code of conduct; the backroom staff has been beefed up, through the addition of a fielding coach and a chef; players are fitter, with the strength and conditioning coach and physios empowered.

They picked a squad that was tweaked in key ways, rather than overhauled. County form was rewarded. Struggling Test players who played well domestically, like Duckett and Smith, were retained. Zak Crawley did not score runs for Kent, so was discarded. The new call-ups, led by Emilio Gay, had earned their selections. The recall of Ollie Robinson, along with the axing of Crawley and Ollie Pope, suggested the clique – which some call a cult – had been disbanded. It also showed more flexible thinking regarding bowlers’ methods.

The appointment of selector Marcus North was also a positive step. North is Australian but steeped in county cricket. In a bid for better connection, his appointment works better than plucking a former player from the commentary box.

It seemed a poor look for McCullum to be in New Zealand until late May, given his winter ended on March 5. But he revealed last week that he had undergone a “couple” of operations which contributed to his work-from-home approach. Being here would have helped him make amends with angry county coaches and watch aspirants in the flesh, but in the circumstances there can be no complaints.

He has returned in a thoughtful and breezy mood, and has looked in his many media appearances like a man grappling with retaining his authenticity while taking on board criticism which he seems to accept was valid.

In the Ashes, McCullum limited himself to rushed media interactions after defeats, which often left a positive and aggressive ideas man looking demure and defensive. It did not suit him. A clue of how much he has changed will come on Thursday: will his feet be up on the Lord’s balcony, and his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, as has become his trademark?

For England, winning is the entry point to everything else. But this time, it might take a little more to win round the most disaffected of their fans.