{"id":360318,"date":"2026-01-09T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360318\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T05:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T05:30:08","slug":"ashes-review-launched-by-ecb-as-stokes-gives-full-backing-to-under-fire-mccullum-ashes-2025-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/360318\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes review launched by ECB as Stokes gives full backing to under-fire McCullum | Ashes 2025-26"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Stokes has backed Brendon McCullum\u2019s continuation as head coach despite England\u2019s 4-1 Ashes thrashing in Australia<\/a>. McCullum, in turn, has accepted the need for improvement but will push back if he is told what to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019m asked my opinion he\u2019ll be getting my full support and \u00adbacking,\u201d Stokes said after England\u2019s five-wicket defeat at the Sydney Cricket<\/a> Ground. \u201cI absolutely love working with Baz. He\u2019s a great man and he\u2019s a very, very, very good coach. There\u2019s\u00a0more that goes on behind the scenes than he\u2019ll ever give away or let out. So, yeah, he\u2019s got my full support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losing Ashes tours have traditionally led to bloodletting in the captaincy, coaching and administrative tiers. Stokes looks by far the most secure, and he confirmed at the end of play that, despite injury and diminishing returns with the bat, he has no intention of leaving his post.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI am definitely keen as anything to carry on. I love having a challenge thrown at me and at the moment, the challenge is getting the team back to where we once were in terms of the performances that we were delivering.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCullum appears safe before the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka that starts in February \u2013 plus a tour of Sri Lanka that serves as a warm-up starting two weeks today \u2013 but in the aftermath of the loss in Australia, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced it was already undertaking a review.<\/p>\n

Richard Gould, the chief executive, has said this will include \u201cplanning and preparation, individual performance and behaviours, and our ability to adapt and respond effectively as circumstances require\u201d.<\/p>\n

This may result in a pinch point down the line, with McCullum set on his methods and sounding as if he will reject any suggestions that compromise them. \u201cI am not against assistance but have a firm belief in how to get the best out of these players,\u201d the New Zealander told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will look at it individually and say \u2018what could I have done better?\u2019 Am I for being told what to do? Of course I am not. But at the same time I\u2019m not thinking there won\u2019t be areas to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brendon McCullum speaks to members of the media at the end of the fifth Ashes Test. Photograph: David Gray\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Stokes\u2019s commitment to the Test captaincy was to be expected but, reflecting on the tour, he also admitted that his team has been tactically found out by opponents in recent contests and unable to adapt in turn. He said: \u201cWe are now playing against teams who have answers to the style of cricket that we have been playing over quite a long period of time now. In the first couple\u00a0of years, teams found it difficult to try and come up with anything to combat the way that we played. But now teams are coming up with plans that are actually standing up to a certain style of cricket that we want to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see in moments throughout the series that when we\u2019ve been positive and we have taken a few risks it has paid off in our favour, but there have been moments in games throughout the series and even before that, where we\u2019ve almost gifted the flow of the game back to the opposition.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point Stokes even suggested England would now go \u201cback to the drawing board\u201d, although for now the detail of this appears to be confined to having \u201chonest discussions\u201d, including honest discussions with himself.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhen things haven\u2019t gone well that filters throughout the whole group. Even myself, I\u2019ve not been up to levels I expected of myself as an all-round player, as a captain as well. But I can tell that to myself. There\u2019s nothing wrong with being truthful to yourself, and there\u2019s also nothing wrong with being truthful to your teammates as well. Speaking the truth and saying stuff people don\u2019t want to hear is sometimes the best thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stokes insisted that his current dressing room still contains \u201cthe best players in England\u201d and paid tribute to the \u201cwarrior spirit\u201d of Brydon Carse in particular after finishing the tour with 22 wickets.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cBrydon Carse has played five Test matches, he\u2019s run in every single time and given his absolute all and he has not shied away from any situation. Josh Tongue bowled I don\u2019t know how many overs, he had to pick up a slack when I got injured and then he came in again today.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo in terms of this warrior tag that people get given, I think everyone does that when you pull the England shirt on. I don\u2019t think anyone can question what some of the guys have done, especially with the ball. I\u2019ve not seen anyone not giving their absolute everything every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Stokes has backed Brendon McCullum\u2019s continuation as head coach despite England\u2019s 4-1 Ashes thrashing in Australia. McCullum,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-360318","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\/360318","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=360318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}