Confident McCullum ‘planning how to bounce back’ after thumping Ashes in England

Brendon McCullum has called on England fans, who were shocked by the team’s disastrous two-day defeat to Australia in the first Ashes Test, to “keep the faith”, insisting the team’s only chance of turning the series around was by doubling down on their methods. “You have to shut out the doubts and insecurities that can creep in,” the head coach said, “because if that does happen, you literally have no chance.”

The pace at which the match has unfolded has meant that the team has had some unexpected time off – although a few of those not required at Perth Stadium spent their Sunday playing for the Lions against an Australian taking the whole group into a team. binding. “We need to find out if that extra cricket is the key, or making sure the camaraderie is strong and morale doesn’t drop,” McCullum said. “We just have to figure out what the pros and cons of all this are.”

Although the New Zealander admitted he was hurt by the way England were beaten and failed to stop Travis Head’s relentless sprint to a decisive century – “Some days you just have to accept that someone was too good. That doesn’t mean it hurts any less” – he has no doubts about their approach. “There are times when we don’t get it quite right, but we just have to believe in what we believe in because we know that gives us the best opportunity,” McCullum said.

“Being 1-0 down doesn’t change what we believe in. We just have to make sure we stay calm, stay together and we start planning and scheming how we’re going to come back, like we’ve done before. Keep the confidence. We know what our best game is, we know what gives us the biggest chances. We’ve been in this situation before, we’ve protected ourselves from the drop in camaraderie and morale over the last few years. We go to Brisbane with high hopes and expectations.”

McCullum continued: “I’m quite confident in how we’re going about things. Over the last few years we’ve built a line-up that’s really connected, that’s tight and plays a style of cricket that we think gives us the best chances. If we deviate from that, we’re in trouble. If we’re able to capture the key moments that separate the wins from the losses then I’m confident we’ll be a live contender in this series.”

“That’s the fun part, right? When you’re under fire and things haven’t quite worked out yet, your methods are tested, and that’s when you as a leader have to stay calm. You have to keep charting the path and the way forward, and keep the boys’ eyes on the prize.”

After going to lunch at 59 for one in their second innings on the second day with a 99-run lead, England “began to work out how we could chart our way to a strong position,” McCullum said. Instead, they allowed the match to unravel completely and quickly. “I thought our bowling unit in the first innings was absolutely brilliant. We came here with a blueprint that we want to take on Australia with some hostility and high pace and that won’t change, we believe in that mantra,” he said. “We will have to give our bowlers more time off so they don’t have to go again [too quickly] when they work at such a high intensity.

“There were times with the bat when we could find ways to score, and there were other times when we lost wickets in bunches. We played decent cricket, but when we lost sessions, we lost them too badly. We have to find ways to be able to hang in games when things aren’t quite going our way. We know how to win games. We just have to continue to back our approach and stay strong and believe in what we are doing.”

“Sometimes we get beat and sometimes it looks pretty ugly, but that mentality allows us to still believe in our abilities the next time we play. We know how big this series is. We know how many eyeballs are on it, we know how disappointed all the fans will be, and we are incredibly disappointed ourselves. We are better than what we showed in the last four hours of Saturday, and we look forward to the next opportunity.”