‘It’s down to whether Stokesy and I cock it up’: McCullum turns focus to Ashes

An England team previously urged to live in the moment now has permission to switch attention to the Ashes, with the head coach, Brendon McCullum, confident the current “cattle” and strategy represent their best bet for winning back the urn.

In contrast to his playing days, the New Zealander’s default since taking the job last May has been to largely dead-bat any talk of Australia’s tour this summer, preferring that a once ailing Test side focus solely on forging the aggressive identity laid out by himself and captain Ben Stokes.

However, no sooner had heart-rates dropped from Tuesday’s one-run defeat by his former team at the Basin Reserve – New Zealand halting England’s run of six straight Test wins – McCullum reverted to type: to get on the front foot and swing.

“Now we can really get excited about it,” said McCullum. “We have the opportunity to really start to plot and plan what’s going to be a pretty amazing time in the guys’ lives: an Ashes series at home against a good Australian side.

“We know it’s not going to be easy but I’m pretty sure we will play a very similar style of cricket that we’ve played throughout the last eight or nine months. And with eight or nine months of development of that style under our belt, we should be hard to beat.

“This team has grown, become more at ease with how we’re playing and more authentic. I think it certainly does give ourselves the best chance of being able to topple a good Australian side.

“We’re very lucky we’ve got good cattle, so to speak, to pick from and then it’s down to whether Stokesey and I cock it up or not.”

Spreading unbridled confidence has been one of the tenets of McCullum’s time in charge, with the trade-off for the overall desire to play aggressively an