Shortly before Christmas, in a coffee shop 100 yards from the team hotel in Adelaide, head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key met in earnest conclave to discuss England’s 11-day surrender of the Ashes.
A passing journalist briefly joined the chat, and asked McCullum why – on the flattest surface of the winter and in temperatures touching 40°C – England had shelved their attacking instincts, scoring at just 3.27 an over.
Not always the dogmatist many believe, McCullum ruefully conceded the point – and in so doing captured the split that had emerged between him and Ben Stokes, who had been making noises about Australia being ‘no place for weak men’ and whose five-and-a-half-hour 83 had been central to England’s go-slow.
Insiders now concede Stokes went too far in his attempt to demonstrate the over-my-dead-body grit required to win back the Ashes. And while England have consistently played down suggestions that he and McCullum fell out in Australia, there is little doubt that the style England adopt this summer will have been the result of the accommodation reached between the dressing room’s two alphas.
On the subject of their relationship, England have been touchy. In April, they rushed out an excerpt from one of their now-preferred in-house interviews with Stokes in which he stressed that he and McCullum got on 95 per cent of the time. The other five per cent, he said, was creative tension, and who doesn’t want some of that?
In the last week alone, McCullum – AWOL for two months – has spoken no fewer than four times, including twice through in-house channels. He has greeted suggestions that he and Stokes had any kind of set-to with a relaxed smile.
Brendon McCullum has greeted suggestions that he and Ben Stokes had any kind of set-to with a relaxed smile
Coach and captain, who for so long seemed perfectly aligned in their mission, appeared to differ in their attitudes during England’s crushing Ashes loss Down Under
On the subject of their relationship, England have been touchy. In April, they rushed out an interview in which Stokes stressed he and McCullum got on 95 per cent of the time
Instead, an unspoken message has emerged: McCullum has not in any way been sidelined by the Ashes experience. Far from it: he remains front and centre, to the extent that onlookers can now predict his bromides with a degree of accuracy.
Stokes, on the other hand, conspicuously declined to look backwards on the eve of today’s first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s.
Asked what he wanted his team to do differently from Australia, he replied: ‘Oh god, this is my first press conference since January. There’s a lot been said over a long period of time, but what I say doesn’t really matter.
‘What does matter is what happens at the end of the game this week and the end of the series if we win or lose. So you’ll be seeing the team going out there still desperate to win.’
When it was put to him that McCullum had called for a more refined form of the aggression that has brought them an overall run-rate of 4.66 since the start of the Bazball era four years ago, far quicker than any other team, Stokes said: ‘Yeah, you’ve heard it from Brendon? We’ll go out there and try to win the series and play some good cricket.’
In a separate interview with the BBC, he played down the idea of major tweaks: ‘It’s not massive change, to be honest. As much as people want to hear us say that, it’s not.’
If any difference remains, then, it is of McCullum as the explainer of England’s approach and Stokes as its enforcer. While admitting that his team needed to be ‘a lot smarter in those big moments’, he also added: ‘It’s not rocket science.’
Stokes, 35 today, wants to get out there and put things right like the action man of old, not dwell on analysis of how this might be done. In that respect, McCullum’s ubiquity over the past week might even have done his team a favour, even if it has produced a conveyor belt of the same old quotes.
Stokes’s five-and-a-half-hour 83 was central to England’s slow progress in Adelaide last winter
It didn’t stop them losing the Ashes in just 11 days of play, with McCullum later admitting Stokes had abandoned his attacking instincts
Everyone needs the cricket to start, but what should we expect from a team whose previous approach centred on the watertight unity of captain and coach?
In private, the management admit that the endless attempt to convey their basic philosophy – to apply pressure to opponents wherever possible, but to soak it up when necessary – has not landed properly with the players, and certainly not with the public, some of whom used the evidence of the Ashes to write their team off as sloggers.
And so England are trying a different tack, with each player encouraged to be the best version of themselves, rather than follow a one-size-fits-all diktat. It is a subtle distinction, but England hope it will be a telling one.
In some cases, this process has happened already. Since Joe Root lost his wicket trying to reverse scoop Jasprit Bumrah at Rajkot in February 2024, he has played to his more traditional strengths and averaged 61, with 11 hundreds.
For the likes of debutant Emilio Gay, though, and even for Jacob Bethell, playing his first red-ball game since his scintillating 154 at Sydney in early January, this is an important message. Stokes even made a point on Tuesday of telling Gay, in front of the team, that he should stick to the style that has brought him seven hundreds since joining Durham two years ago – and not worry about fitting into a mould.
Gay’s selection was not straightforward. When the new County Insight Group – consisting of four domestic coaches – were asked who they thought should open with Ben Duckett, it is understood there were four different answers: Gay, Ben McKinney, Dom Sibley and even Zak Crawley.
But, as the Stokes-McCullum relationship has reminded us, complete consensus in English cricket is probably impossible. It may not even be desirable.
And for all the talk, for all the conjecture about dressing-room dynamics, the best way for England to reconnect with a public they have threatened to lose is to start winning again, after which plenty will be forgiven.
McCullum has not in any way been sidelined by the Ashes experience. Far from it: he remains front and centre
Against a strong New Zealand side armed with a doughty batting line-up and a penetrative pace attack, that will not be easy. But since the ECB changed next to nothing after the Ashes debacle, it is the only conceivable solution.
‘Words are very easy to say, but we’re so close to the series starting that it all gets forgotten when the first ball gets bowled,’ said Stokes.
‘You’ve pretty much heard everything that you probably need to hear. It’s about going out there and winning games of cricket. That’s where hopefully we’ll do the rest of our talking. Words are done now.’
Rarely has a non-Ashes summer begun with such a mixture of determination and nervous energy.
