There were no new coaching announcements or additions to the set-up. Everyone remains in place apart from selector Luke Wright, who resigned for reasons not related to England’s winter. Troy Cooley’s role as pace-bowling lead coach was talked up, but the process to appoint him predated the Ashes.
All very general and unspecific
Gould reckoned that “30-40 per cent” of the review was new but admitted it will not be a “complete reset”. In effect it was an attempt to show how professional they are already despite evidence to the contrary. When asked at the end of an hour-long media briefing whether we will see a different McCullum this summer, Gould said: “I hope not too different.” Nobody really fancied the chaos of mass sackings, and in a franchise era it is much harder anyway to find the people you want.
Key’s hand of friendship to the counties, his laying down of a gauntlet to batsmen to score runs to be picked will be tested if a player like Dom Sibley – the anti-Bazballer – emerges as the top run-scorer demanding to be selected. Or will a couple of 80s from Zak Crawley be enough?
It was all very general and unspecific. Contrast that to the no-filter statement put out by Ben Stokes just hours later and it was a reminder of the early Bazball days when Key was telling everyone to “strap themselves in” for the ride under McCullum. “I have learnt a lot about myself but the most important thing that I want the fans to know is that…. I f—–g love cricket, I f—–g love this team, I f—–g love being England captain and I have got so much more to give to this role and I’m so happy that I get to do it with Baz and Rob.” Hard to imagine that one was run by the communications experts before being published to his 3.1 million Instagram followers, but then that is just Ben Stokes.