IND v ENG: ‘We got timid as series went on’ – Brendon McCullum on Bazball getting exposed against India

England Test coach Brendon McCullum is not shying away from accepting the thrashing his team suffered at the hands of India in the recently concluded Test series. After winning the first Test in Hyderabad dramatically, England lost the remaining four Tests to go down 1-4 in what was thought to be a tight contest between two top nations.

Speaking after his team’s loss by an innings and 64 runs in the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala, McCullum admitted that Bazball – a name media gave to England’s fearless and ultra-attacking approach since Brendon and Ben Stokes took over the charge, got exposed big time and, it’s time for some uncomfortable confrontations to ensure players in the dressing room are honest to their motive of providing entertainment to the fans.

"Sometimes, you can get away with things," McCullum said.

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"But when you're exposed the way, we have been in the back end of this series in particular, it does require some pretty deep thinking and some adjustment to make sure we're staying true to what we believe in,” the head coach added.

Accepting the result in utmost honesty and reflecting on where they went wrong, McCullum said"as the series went on, England’s approach from being fearless went to being timid," something that contradicts their style of play in Tests, resulting in them going down in each of the last four Tests.

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"If anything, we got more timid as the series went on, and that was because of the pressure that was applied to us by the Indian line-up, not just with the ball. With the bat, they put us under a tremendous amount of pressure, too," McCullum said.

Since the pair took over the leadership role, England prospered in Tests, although they lost several games – eight in 23 matches, seven of which had come since the start of 2023.

'We need to regroup'

McCullum accepts that his team’s approach got exposed in this series against India and that they need to regroup and work on several factors to ensure they aren’t repeating the same mistakes in the home summer.

"There are some things where you can get a little bit of luck on your side and you paper over a couple of the cracks. When you are exposed to the way we have been here, you know that you have to get better in some areas."

"The next couple of months will be us working out that and making sure when we come to the summer, we are a more refined version of what we are at the minute,” McCullum added.