Brendon McCullum has stressed his desire to stay on as England head coach but acknowledged this is now a question for those higher up.<\/p>\n
Australia winning a much-anticipated Ashes series at the earliest opportunity<\/a> has thrust McCullum\u2019s role into the spotlight but with a multi-format contract that runs up to the end of the 50-over World Cup in late 2027, removing him would cost a seven-figure sum.<\/p>\n Senior figures at the England and Wales Cricket Board are understood to be wary of making wholesale changes<\/a> but with Australia now openly targeting a third home whitewash this century as the series moves to Melbourne and then Sydney, McCullum and the team director, Rob Key, are under pressure.<\/p>\n Asked if he expected to be in the role come the English summer, McCullum replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s not really up to me, is it? I will just keep trying to do the job, try to learn the lessons that I haven\u2019t quite got right here and make adjustments. Those questions are for someone else, not for me.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty good gig. It\u2019s good fun. You travel the world with the lads and try to play some exciting cricket and try to achieve some things. For me, it\u2019s a matter of trying to just get the very best out of the people and try to achieve what you can with them. Those other decisions are up to other people. I think we\u2019ve made some progress from when I took over to where we are.\u201d<\/p>\n With Key having extended \u00adMcCullum\u2019s deal in 2024 and expanded his brief to include the white-ball teams, their fates may well be intertwined and not helped by 21 defeats in 39 games across all formats this calendar year.<\/p>\n Among the questions swirling after the 82-run defeat at Adelaide Oval<\/a> is whether McCullum and the captain, Ben Stokes, remain on the same page. At 2-0 down, Stokes suddenly ordered his players to show \u201cfight\u201d and a flat pitch on which England would usually have looked to attack was met with caution: 286 all out in 87.2 overs represented their slowest first innings under the current regime.<\/p>\n Ben Stokes (right) wanted the England players to show \u2018fight\u2019 in Adelaide. Photograph: Gareth Copley\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Asked if the players still believed in his methods, McCullum replied: \u201cI hope so. You\u2019ll have to ask them. For the last few years, we\u2019ve had a team which has understood how we\u2019re going about this style and we put this team together based on the skill level and the talent [required]. That\u2019s not going to change during the time that I\u2019m still in the job.<\/p>\n \u201cI will always have the back of my players, always support them and I\u2019ll always make sure that I\u2019m protective of them as well in a public forum. That doesn\u2019t mean you don\u2019t challenge them privately.<\/p>\n \u201cThe style has never been about the scoring rates. We have never said we are going to try to score at 5.5\/6 an over. It\u2019s about allowing us to get in the head space where we are clear, transparent and immersed in the situation and the moment so we can identify risk, where the game is at and what is required.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the first nine days [of the series] I felt we were incredibly tight, tense and desperate to perform and succeed. That desperation is great, but not if it puts the handbrake on your ability to let your talent and game come out.\u201d<\/p>\n As a head coach who has always maintained his methods relate to the \u201ctop two inches\u201d \u2013 ie mindset \u2013 rather than technical coaching, this \u201cdesperation\u201d does fall on McCullum. England\u2019s mid-tour break in the holiday town of Noosa is also likely to be the subject of questions inside the ECB given the headlines it generated<\/a> at the time (and the fact the reset did not work out on the field).<\/p>\n