England fans have had to endure a harrowing year of Test cricket, but the appointments of Ben Stokes as captain and Brendon McCullum as manager pave the way for excitement: watch England vs New Zealand live on Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event from 10am on Thursday
Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum smile during a practice session at Lord’s
When England played New Zealand at Lord’s last summer, caution took over.
Set 273 from 75 overs to win on the final day after Black Caps captain Kane Williamson’s bold statement, England were not so bold and showed no appetite for a run.
Then-captain Joe Root and then-manager Chris Silverwood perhaps felt that a routinely shredded line-up in India at the end of the previous winter, and now bereft of Ben Stokes due to injury, had no chance of victory. Perhaps they were worried about the consequences if things went wrong.
If a similar opportunity presents itself this year, the attitude should be markedly different. Because this is the era of Stokes and Brendon McCullum. Steps back are unlikely to be tolerated. They have never been part of the makeup of Stokes and McCullum.
In his introduction as the new England captain, Stokes spoke of his desire for his team to be made up of “selfless cricketers who make decisions based on winning games”.
McCullum, meanwhile, said he wanted to remove what he considered an “English fear of failure” when he was introduced to the media for the first time since being appointed test coach.
The appointments of McCullum and Stokes come after a slump for English Test cricket: 11 losses and just one win in 17 Test matches, with batting collapses plentiful.
Stokes’ predecessor, Root, must have become increasingly deflated, as byes and rotations often deprived him of his best team while under the pressure of single-handedly shoring up a batting lineup. Meanwhile, McCullum’s predecessor, Silverwood, seemed far from inspiring.
But with two of the game’s great movers now in charge, Stokes on the pitch and McCullum facilitating behind the scenes, there has been a much-needed jolt of excitement.
England fans have grown accustomed to a sense of dread and resignation before Test matches of late. They have seen the games unfold behind their fingers. With McCullum and Stokes at the helm, they should be watching with eyes wide open, not wanting to miss a minute.
McCullum said, “Ben plays the game in the right spirit and for the right reasons. His style of play aligns a lot with mine. I’m sure he’s going to be very watchable.” Watchable, yes, but that doesn’t mean wild. McCullum and Stokes are attacking the cricketers, but also thinking.
McCullum, speaking with sky sports Michael Atherton, said he enjoys his “reckless gamer” personality and even contemptuously called himself a “T20 gentleman.” But he added: “I knew what I was doing in the game. I put in a lot of work.”
The 40-year-old owns the fastest hundred in Test cricket, a 54-ball effort against Australia in his last game for New Zealand in 2016, but he did take 12 centuries in total in his Test career, including three double centuries and a triple Yes, I knew what I was doing in the game.
We also saw how Stokes cerebrally planned his way through his two most memorable innings for England so far: his 84 unbeaten runs in the 2019 World Cup final against New Zealand at Lord’s and his unbeaten 135 in the Headingley test. Ashes against Australia later that summer.
Stokes’ World Cup final blow helped England cap a stunning cue ball turnaround as they went from a disastrous first-round exit in 2015 to champions over 50 four years later.
But McCullum played a pivotal role in its early development. England captain Eoin Morgan said his new attacking direction had been largely inspired by the way McCullum’s New Zealand had played during his run to the 2015 final.
That included an eight-wicket demolition of England in Wellington as McCullum smashed 77 in just 25 balls to carry the Black Caps past England’s measly 123 with a whopping 226 balls to spare. The pursuit run done in just 12.2 overs. England erased.
Four months later, England’s new white ball era began with them topping 400 in a one-day international against McCullum’s New Zealand.
If McCullum’s England could start their new red-ball era by breaking 400 in a Test match, it would be a tremendous start, such has been the rarity of that during a period of alarming batting frailty.
That’s possibly the main reason the excitement surrounding Stokes and McCullum needs to be tempered with a healthy dose of realism. Instant results would be nice, but perhaps shouldn’t be expected.
For starters, England take on the reigning World Test champions. New Zealand are an excellent team, even if they didn’t look like it when they were cut to 19-6 in a losing tour game last weekend.
England’s bowling attack has also been ravaged by injury and illness. While his top two in that department, James Anderson and Stuart Broad, are back after being ruled out for the West Indies tour in March, his top three, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Olly Stone, remain on the sidelines.
McCullum also readily accepted his appointment as trial coach is a “risk” considering his only previous coaching experience has been in cue-ball cricket, in the Caribbean Premier League with the Trinbago Knight Riders and the Indian Premier League with the Kolkata Knight Riders. .