England’s new era with Brendon McCullum as head coach and Ben Stokes as captain begins on June 2 in the first Test against New Zealand; watch England v New Zealand three test series live on Sky Sports
Brendon McCullum is excited to be working with the new England Test captain, Ben Stokes.
Brendon McCullum is in no doubt that Ben Stokes has the perfect attributes to be England’s captain and is excited to work with him in his new role as head coach of the men’s Test team.
All-rounder Stokes was named as Joe Root’s successor as skipper at the end of April, followed by former New Zealand international McCullum who was appointed to lead the team off the pitch just over two weeks ago.
The 40-year-old is now preparing England to take on his homeland in the first match of a three-Test series at Lord’s which begins on June 2, live on sky sportsand believes that Stokes is the ideal person to lead the team into a new era.
“I have loved watching Stokesy play cricket over the years,” said McCullum. Sky sports news. “He’s one of those real game characters where the harder it is, the more they escalate.
“Some people are born with those qualities, and I think he’s definitely one of those guys. I’m looking forward to working with him and there will be some solid conversations at times. I’ll probably have to be more of a closer.” gaps at times as opposed to some previous roles I’ve had in leadership or captaincy, where I’ve probably been a bit more like Stokesy at times.
“I don’t train technically. I understand techniques, but for me it’s more about man management and trying to provide the right environment for the team to come out and be the best version of themselves.”
“With Stokesy as captain, we have a very strong leader, a true ‘follow me’ type of captain, and my job will be to ensure that we are consistent with our message, take care of the guys within the environment as well and try to allow them to grow at a rate that maybe they haven’t caught up before, so it’s a good challenge.”
McCullum’s appointment to oversee the trial squad came as a surprise to some when it was announced, given that his previous coaching experience has been with the T20 Trinbago Knight Riders and Kolkata Knight Riders teams in the Caribbean Premier League and Indian Premier League, respectively.
A hard-hitting wicketkeeper-batsman, he was also particularly renowned in limited-overs cricket during his playing days, but also won 101 test matches for New Zealand and underlined how he feels a strong England team could help reinvigorate the longer format. of the game. .
“If you look at my career as well, I was also able to play a good amount of red ball cricket and although I was lucky enough to make a living from the game of white ball all over the world and franchise cricket, for me red ball cricket Red has always been the pinnacle of the sport,” McCullum said.
“If you look at where the game probably fits right now, it’s on a slightly downward trend and for me the nation that can really change that is England because of the tradition of Test cricket here and the following of fans and support. you get in this country.
“For us to be competitive in Test cricket, hopefully, it will go a long way to changing the perception of red-ball cricket a bit in the future.”
McCullum takes charge of England at No. 6 in the ICC Men’s Test Team Rankings and bottom of the 2021-23 World Test Championship table following last winter’s Ashes series thrashing in Australia and the series defeat in the West Indies earlier this year.
While he admits there is an element of risk in his appointment and that it will take time to turn around the team’s fortunes, he is excited about the talent he sees in English cricket.
“I’m confident in the skills that I have and the group that we have to start things off as well,” McCullum said. “It will take me a bit of time to fully adjust to some of the methods and forms here, and it may take some time for the guys to adjust to me.
“But I’m looking forward to it, it was a big risk taken by everyone, but you don’t get anywhere unless you’re prepared to take a couple of risks in life.
“You look at the players in English cricket, there’s a lot of talent there. There are some guys who have probably switched off and some who haven’t been discovered yet.
“He certainly isn’t lacking in talent and when you add in some world-class players who have had incredible careers, he becomes an attractive target.”
