Brendon McCullum sacked as England Test head coach but will retain white-ball role

McCullum combined Test and white-ball roles in 2024, two years after he first took charge of the Test team. When he arrived as Test coach in 2022, he started to impress with spectacular results, initially achieved through breathtaking cricket.

The partnership with Stokes – Bazball style – revitalized an England team that had won just one of the previous 17 Tests.

With flamboyant innings, England achieved famous victories against New Zealand at Trent Bridge, India at Edgbaston and Pakistan at Rawalpindi; the second was the start of a 3-0 series win. Overall, England won 10 of the first 11 Tests under McCullum and Stokes.

However, since this initial period of success, England have lost 19 and won 17 of 38 Tests; It started with the heart-stopping one-run defeat of New Zealand in Wellington and continued after England forced a follow-on.

England fell 2-0 down at home in the Ashes of 2023 but turned the tables and drew 2-2 and perhaps would have won the cup had rain not washed out almost the entirety of the final two days of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.

The India tour in 2024 started with another famous win in Hyderabad, but ended in a 4-1 series defeat.

Stokes, McCullum and Key have their sights set on the Ashes tour in 2025-26 when they return home from India; This included ending the career of England’s greatest goalkeeper of all time, James Anderson.

England devised a plan to strike Australia quickly, launching what was probably their most hostile attack in over 50 years on the journey down.

However, the tour failed due to poor planning, poor performances and allegations of a drinking culture.

Having played just one warm-up match against the Lions, England were in a strong position in the first Test in Perth – leading by 105 runs with nine wickets in hand shortly after lunch on the second day. In a stunning explosion, England were defeated before the end of the day and never recovered.

Although England won the fourth Test in Melbourne, their first win in Australia for 14 years, their performance elsewhere was abysmal; A worn-out squad was left unprepared for the demands of the following tour.

Off the field, England were credited with public drinking in Noosa, where Ben Duckett was filmed in the opener, apparently drunk.

Worse came at the end of the Ashes tour when it emerged that Brook had been shot by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington on the eve of a one-day international tour of New Zealand before a trip to Australia.

After being backed to keep their jobs, McCullum and Stokes sought to distance themselves from rumors of a dispute allegedly brewing in Australia.

England added backroom staff to help with preparations and imposed a midnight curfew to prevent further rows.

There was optimism when they won the first Test of the summer against New Zealand at Lord’s, but the nightclub incident as Stokes celebrated his win sparked a chain of events that left England in turmoil.

McCullum’s contract with the white-ball team runs until the end of the 50-over World Cup in South Africa next autumn.

Now England need to find a head coach for the Test team who can work with McCullum’s great character and relaxed approach.