England captain Ben Stokes has backed coach Brendon McCullum to continue in his role with the side, despite the visitors having lost the Ashes, with one Test to go in Sydney. The 34-year-old said that he and McCullum were the right men to take England cricket forward, admitting that he could not see anyone other than the former New Zealand captain taking this team to greater heights, along with him.
“There is no doubt in my mind me and Brendon are the right people to carry on doing this for the near future. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the time I’ve worked with Brendon. I can’t see there being someone else who I could take this team [with] from where we are now to even bigger heights.”
“So for us as captain and coach, when we do have the time off, we need to put our heads together and go ‘What is it that we think we need to do to go to the next level?’” Stokes said two days before the Sydney Test.
The all-rounder admitted that England had not found the same level of consistency over the last 12 months, as was the case in the initial few years when he and McCullum were at the helm.
“You look back at how things have gone over the last year, the results and the consistency hasn’t quite been there from the first two and a half to three years we were in charge.”
“All we’ve ever wanted to do is constantly push the guys and not wanting to stand still. We’ve got some things to go away and speak about and try to get the boys pushing even further forward than we managed to achieve since me and Brendon first took over,” he said.
McCullum was handed a dual responsibility as the white-ball coach in September 2024 and assumed the role from January 2025, and Stokes believed that the additional responsibility on him had not affected the Test team.
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“He has got two jobs to do now. It has not influenced the relationship we have with this Test team whatsoever,” Stokes said.