Amid the fallout from England’s defeat in the first Test – one that left Lord’s empty on the fourth day and afforded South Africa a few more Castle lagers on Friday night – the message from Brendon McCullum was simple: his players did not go hard enough.
Given the evaporation of 20 wickets in 82.4 overs across the two innings – England rolled for scores of 165 and 149 by an attack described as “relentless” by Ben Stokes – it is an assessment from the head coach that may induce bristling in some quarters.
After all, they still scored the runs they did muster at a none-too-sluggish 3.8 per over. But much as with the backing of Zak Crawley, a player who in normal circumstances might have been humanely whipped out of the firing line by now, McCullum sees things differently: those numbers are simplistic and do not reflect certain passages where in his mind England retreated from their stated desire to take the positive option. “I guess one of the messages we will be talking about is did we go hard enough with our approach?” said McCullum, when asked about the discussions to be had before Thursday’s second Test at Old Trafford. “Could we maybe go a little harder and try to turn some pressure back on the opposition as well? “When the game was in the balance and a couple of spells from their boys were testing, we could maybe have been a little braver to be able to turn some pressure back on the opposition – in both innings. “For us, we’ve got an idea of how we want to play.
And the skipper and myself are very strong with our belief and what we think will give this English side the greatest opportunity to become a very good cricket team and win more games of Test cricket.” McCullum dislikes the term Bazball, believing it to be