Sydney [Australia], January 2 : Ahead of the final Sydney Ashes Test, England skipper Ben Stokes said that he cannot see any other person than Brendon McCullum as a head coach to work along with him to take the team to "bigger heights." He also pointed out the effort and enjoyment both have had as the leadership duo for the Three Lions.
After snapping an 18 Test winless streak in Australia at Melbourne, England finally have something to cheer about in Australia during an Ashes series and would be aiming to add one more win in front of their team's name and take a flight back home with a respectable 2-3 scoreline which would let them keep their head high even though the wait for first Ashes series win in Australia since 2010/11 continues. The final Sydney Test, a New Year's affair, would take place from Sunday onwards.
Ever since the Ashes loss was sealed at Adelaide as England faltered in a valiant attempt at chasing 435 runs, McCullum and team's managing director Rob Key have expressed their desire to continue in their respective posts, while their future lays in hands of ECB CEO Richard Gould and chair Richard Thompson, who would be looking into what went wrong for England during what was their best chance at sealing the series, with Aussie frontline quicks, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood out for majority of the series and the former featuring in just Adelaide Test. This, combined with an ageing, inconsistent batting line-up consisting of debutant Jake Weatherald, had given the 'Bazballers' their best chance of a series win in Australia, but somehow, despite their batting and bowling firepower, England could not seize the crucial moments.
McCullum still has some protection under his contract, as he signed up for white-ball side coaching back in 2025 and has the ICC Men's T20 World Cup and the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2027 to look forward to. Also, his contract is a really well-paid, seven-figure sum deal.
With the coach in the firing line, he has full backing of his captain, who also aims to be a part of England's post-Ashes recovery phase and feels that they, as a duo,o are the right people, in the right role to carry out the same. Stokes is hungry to push himself and his side to even greater heights, with the next Test being in June this year after January, giving Stokes-McCullum just enough time to map out a plan for the future.
Since the duo took over in 2022, England has won 26 Tests and lost 17, which is a massive improvement from just one win in their last 17 Tests under the captaincy of Joe Root just before the 'Bazball' duo took charge.
Stokes has not been able to win their two five-Test assignments, each against Australia and India, at home and away. He admitted that over the last 12 months, the team has produced just four wins and five defeats, which have not been good enough. With both Stokes and McCullum being around till 2027 due to their contracts and lack of captaincy options other than white-ball Harry Brook, the red-ball deputy to Stokes, England's near future seems to be in the hands of Stokes and McCullum.
"Look, I have thoroughly enjoyed the time that I have worked with Brendon," said Stokes as quoted by ESPNCricinfo. "I cannot see there being someone else who I could take this team with, from where we are now, to even bigger heights."
"We have put so much time and effort into getting this team to where it was from when we first started, and now we are in a situation or position where we know we want to get even more out of the group, get even more out of individuals, and we feel we have done a very good job at getting everyone to the position we are in right now. So, for us as captain and coach, when we do have the time off, like we have done every single time between series, we put our heads together and go 'what is it that we think we need to go to the next level?'," he added.
Stokes admitted that since last year, the "results and the consistency have not quite been there from the first two-and-a-half to three years that they were in charge."
"So, when you start seeing a trend and something that is not what you want, when you have that time off between series like we do after this - from January and I think June (England's next Test assignment against New Zealand) - it is a long time for us to get things going again in the right direction," he added.
Stokes said that he and McCullum have always wanted to "push the guys and not want to stand still".
"We have obviously got some things to go away and speak about and try and get the boys pushing even further forward than we managed to achieve since me and Brendon first took over the job," he concluded.
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