Brendon McCullum believes England’s whitewash of New Zealand has set of alarm bells around Test cricket

England reached new heights of aggression with both bat and ball in their 3-0 series win and now have a quick turnaround to prepare for India. The match was rearranged from last year after the abandonment of the final Test of the series – which stands at 2-1 to the visiting team – because of a Covid outbreak in the India squad.

The McCullum era began barely a month ago and the upturn for England, a team that had won only one of their previous 17 Tests, has been nothing short of extraordinary. Asked where the ceiling for this team could be, McCullum said: “We’ll find out. I’m looking forward to the next challenge as well: India. It’ll be quite good fun to look at a new opponent.

“The world Test champions [New Zealand] were a formidable opponent to overcome and the alarm bells have probably gone off somewhat around world cricket as to how this team is going to play.”

The early signs are that McCullum and the new captain, Ben Stokes, have quickly forged a brilliant partnership, sharing a positive philosophy, mindset and approach. McCullum believes that it was the “perfect” time for Stokes to have been given the role.

“It’s early days, but he’s exceeded my expectations already,” McCullum said. “I’m aggressive but he’s got me covered. Last night [Sunday night], I’ll give you an example, I think we needed 297 with 40 overs left in the day plus the extra half an hour, so 47 overs. His message to the group was, ‘Knock this off tonight.’ I was like, ‘Ooof, OK.’ We obviously didn’t knock it off but that was the mentality in his message: just try and gee the guys up. We’re chasing the win, don’t put any restrictions on yourself. Just take the game on.

“He’s been superb, his messaging has been very consistent and very articulate as well. He doesn’t speak all the time but when he does speak it’s bang on. What we’ve seen, when we’re fielding and he’s captaining, [is] he’s constantly making plays which I think is great because it means at least we’re in control regardless of what the scoreboard says.

“Then, when he’s batting, he’s pushing the envelope as well, which is sending a message to not just our dressing room but to other dressing rooms that this is how we’re going to play.”

The message is clear from McCullum: England are going to keep pushing the boundaries and redefining what Test cricket can look like. Asked if he could ever see himself trying to reel things back if the team push it too far, his response was enlightening.

“I hope we take it too far because then we’ll know exactly where that line is,” he said. “Until you do that, you’re not really sure. We’ve seen it with the England white-ball stuff – there have been times where they’ve probably pushed too hard and then they know. I think it’ll be the same with us and we’ve got to keep exploring where that line is.”

– The Times

Originally published as Brendon McCullum believes England’s whitewash of New Zealand has set of alarm bells around Test cricket