Sydney [Australia], January 8 (ANI): Following his side’s 4-1 Ashes series loss to Australia, England head coach Brendon McCullum has said that he is not rigid in his beliefs but has conviction in his methods, pointing to the criticism of the ‘Bazball’ school of cricket championed by him and skipper Ben Stokes.
The ultra-attacking, positive, and results-oriented Bazball, shaped and performed over the last few years with the Australia Ashes tour in mind, was again exposed as England were massively outplayed by the Aussies during the Ashes series. Aussies registered a five-wicket win in the last Test of the series at Sydney.
England’s hopes of a 2-3 scoreline were dashed with Australia having bagged the Ashes with victory in the Adelaide Test.
Having failed to win big-ticket five-match series against India and Australia, both at home and away, England’s brand of cricket has come under intense scrutiny.
“I take offence to [any suggestion I don’t want to evolve]. I am not against evolution, I welcome it. I am not rigid in my beliefs, but I have conviction in my methods,” McCullum responded to a question by former England captain Nasser Hussain, according to Sky Sports.
“That does not mean you are blind to progress, but to throw everything out that has worked in pursuit of something completely unknown does not make any sense,” he added.
McCullum said that while he is willing to continue as head coach, the decision does not rest with him.
“I am keen to carry on in the role. Those decisions ultimately aren’t up to me, but the lessons we will digest from this tour and what we have built, it would be a shame to rip that up and chase something no one knows whether it will be successful. If we stay true to what we believe in, we give ourselves a good opportunity to progress as a team over the next few years. In this series, we have been pretty poor in the key moments so it was a real missed opportunity,” he said.
McCullum also said that when it comes to the team, “there is always accountability and no soft environment for himself and skipper”.
“You get to where you get in your life from where you have come from because you know when to deliver a hard message and when to give guys a pat on the back. What we say in the dressing room can be very different to what we say in public. Nothing is binary. Some guys are at their best putting teams under pressure, others when they are trying to absorb. We are not the first team to get that balance wrong in Australia,” he said.
On his equation with skipper Ben Stokes, McCullum said that “they are always on the same page” and became good friends and colleagues.
“We have robust conversations. It does not mean we agree all the time, but we commit to the side and then whatever we decide we support the other one. Could we have done more [as a group]? Of course. The next little while is making sure we do not make the same mistakes again. Even if we had won 5-0, there would have been areas of progress you would look to take on board,” he concluded.
Coming to the match, England won the toss and opted to bat first, putting 384 runs on the board with fantastic knocks from Joe Root (160) and Harry Brook. However, English bowlers let the momentum go wasted as Travis Head (163) and Steve Smith (138) cracked bumper tons while Beau Webster also chipped in 71 useful runs to take them to 567 runs, giving them a 183-run lead. Josh Tongue and Brydon Carse took three wickets each for England.
In the second innings, England posted a respectable total, courtesy a masterclass century from all-rounder Jacob Bethell, who hit his first Test match ton, a 265-ball 142. England was skittled out for 342 runs, with Mitchell Starc and Webster getting three wickets and Scott Boland getting two. England set Australia 160 runs to win, having gained a 159-run lead.
While bowling, England did put up a fight, reducing Australia to 121/5, but the target was not enough as Alex Carey (16*) and Cameron Green (22*) took Australia home. (ANI)
