Brendon McCullum conceded that England captain Ben Stokes’ decision-making was below its best during their 2-1 series defeat to Pakistan.
Stokes was out of sorts after rushing back from a hamstring injury sustained in the Hundred, returning for the second Test after England had won the opener under the leadership of Ollie Pope.
Stokes’ bowling began to look back to its best last summer, prior to his injury, but he was unable to contribute with the ball in Pakistan, harming the balance of the side, while his usually sharp captaincy was slightly off the pace according to head coach McCullum.
“Look, with Stokesy that injury was quite a significant injury. He had to work incredibly hard to get back. As the driven athlete he is, he’s all-in when he does something. He had to put in a lot of graft there and subconsciously it can… not cloud things, but maybe you’re not quite as screwed down as you can be in terms of decision-making.” McCullum said.
“That’s natural, as long as you learn from that and make sure next time you’re presented with that situation you’re able to block out the noise and stay crystal clear in the moment.
“He’s disappointed but he’s our skipper and we know he’s a tough bugger. He’ll make sure he’ll come back and it’s our job to make sure we wrap our arms around him and help him along the way.”
‘It’s not about telling people which shots to play’
McCullum, while admitting that England missed opportunities through not being good enough, was unapologetic about the way his side batted.
“We lost 2-1 so you can’t be too bolshy with what you’re saying, but at the same time it’s about mindset,” McCullum said. “It’s about getting players who feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof when they go out to play. It’s not a matter of instructing people about what shots they can and can’t play – that’s got a very short shelf life.
“These guys are able to play the game a lot better than perhaps we could ourselves,” added McCullum. “To be honest, the approach is so individual, it’s a matter of conviction. Sometimes, right shot or wrong shot, as long as you believe in that shot you’ve got a fair chance of executing.”
“I thought we got a par score on the back of Jamie Smith’s brilliant knock. We were in a strong-ish position with ball in hand and unfortunately they were able to get lower-order runs with the shepherding of Saud and some lower-order hitting. If we were able to get a 60/70-run lead then things could have turned out differently. They are the fine margins in the game and they were able to seize it, we weren’t.
“That’s something we’ll look back on with a bit of disappointment. I know we don’t come back to the sub-continent for a couple of years but there’s still times, even in other countries, when we’re presented with spinning wickets and we’ve got to make sure our approach is a little bit more screwed-down, a little bit better than it is. That will be some of the conversations we have.
“It’s a matter of trying to get that environment to a place where it’s confident, it’s clear and the messaging is very simple. With failure sometimes it brings about a little bit of deeper thought and that’s something we’ll have to do over the next little while. We’ve also got a very quick turnaround for the New Zealand series, but we have to make sure we’ve learned some lessons from this and be better when we get the chance. That’s the nice thing, we do get an opportunity, and it would be nice to bounce back in New Zealand.”
Pope will not be dropped
England’s vice-captain Ollie Pope is not going anywhere, except to New Zealand, according to McCullum, after totalling 55 runs in the series.
“I’ve said it heaps, No 3 is a tough place to bat. Popey is disappointed with his output of runs here, no doubt. He came into the series hitting the ball as well as anyone in the nets. His confidence was strong. With that innings in India [his 196 in Hyderabad], albeit he was a bit quiet afterwards, he knows at his absolute best he can be super-effective in these conditions.
“It wasn’t to be for Popey in this series, but it was only a couple of Tests ago he got a brilliant 150 for us [against Sri Lanka on his home ground of the Oval]. He stepped up to lead the team really well when the skipper was out and he’s still a really important part for us. He’ll benefit from a couple of weeks out and he’ll get another opportunity when we head to New Zealand in conditions where he’ll hopefully be able to flourish.”
