{"id":238225,"date":"2025-11-01T18:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T18:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238225\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T18:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T18:06:08","slug":"brendon-mccullum-confident-england-can-throw-off-batting-blues-for-ashes-england-cricket-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/238225\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendon McCullum confident England can throw off batting blues for Ashes | England cricket team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brendon McCullum has predicted England\u2019s batters will have no trouble shaking off the woes that have dogged their white-ball tour of New Zealand in time for the Ashes. Their top order crumbled yet again on the way to a third successive defeat<\/a> in Wellington on Saturday and several key members of the Test squad, including Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett and Joe Root, have struggled badly in recent one-day internationals. But the team\u2019s head coach believes their troubles are limited to the 50-over format.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different form of the game and it\u2019s a completely different kind of challenge that we\u2019re going to be confronted with,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes the process you go through in regards to batting doesn\u2019t necessarily translate to runs, but the game can come in time. That\u2019s what we\u2019re holding on to, anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Test cricket we\u2019ve found ways in various conditions to deal with those seaming wickets, but in one-day cricket we just haven\u2019t been able to nail down whether we stick or twist at certain times. I like to separate \u2013 in T20 cricket we\u2019re going really well and in Test cricket we have a pretty decent idea of where we\u2019re at and we\u2019ve performed reasonably well, albeit we have a huge challenge ahead of us. One-day cricket is clearly the area we need to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we do come across the trickier conditions in Australia and Test cricket we have a pretty good understanding of how we\u2019re going to go about it. It doesn\u2019t guarantee us anything, but it gives us a level of confidence going into that series.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullum welcomed Jofra Archer\u2019s form and fitness for the Asheswith the seamer completing his 10-over allocation for the second time in four days. \u201cFor him to get through his full set of overs twice and build towards what\u2019s coming is a real bonus,\u201d he said. \u201cYou mention the Jamie Smiths, the Joe Roots and the Ben Ducketts, they\u2019ll be better for the run too. With the prep we\u2019ve had, with the other Test guys who\u2019ve been here for a while too, we\u2019ll have no excuses come Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brendon McCullum said of Jofra Archer: \u2018For him to get through his full set of overs twice and build towards what\u2019s coming is a real bonus.\u2019 Photograph: Kerry Marshall\/AP<\/p>\n

McCullum distanced himself from Harry Brook\u2019s demand for constant aggression with the bat in one-day cricket, saying his players are \u201csearching for a template\u201d in the format and that consistent success would only come when they understood when to adopt a less attacking approach.<\/p>\n

In Wellington, for the third time in the series, England\u2019s top order folded meekly after being put in to bat. McCullum said performances had been disappointing and that he expected more, before talking of the need to modify their batting style. Brook, England\u2019s white-ball captain, had reacted to defeat in the first game of the series by calling on his players to \u201cgo a little bit harder and knock them off their lengths\u201d, but the head coach would like to see a bit more nuance.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHarry\u2019s said before we need to put pressure back on the bowlers and there are times when we need to be a little braver,\u201d McCullum said. \u201cThen there are other times where we\u2019ve got to adjust to their lengths and lines. We\u2019ve got very good players, but we need to just develop a little bit more craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Test cricket and T20, we\u2019ve got our template and we understand how to play, but in one-day cricket we\u2019re still searching a little bit for that and we\u2019ve got to improve on that pretty quickly. We\u2019ve got some talented players, but our performances at the moment in this form of the game aren\u2019t quite up to scratch and we need to rectify that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendon McCullum has predicted England\u2019s batters will have no trouble shaking off the woes that have dogged their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-238225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}