Brendon McCullum remains unfazed by England’s heavy innings defeat in the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s, urging the players to continue with the attacking approach.
The England men’s head coach was optimistic about his team’s chances heading into the second Test at Old Trafford, starting from August 25. The side were thrashed in the first Test by an innings and 12 runs inside three days. However, McCullum believes the team can bounce back without reining in their attacking approach.
“Over the next while you’ll probably get used to my optimism as well. I don’t tend to overreact about anything,”
he said as he fronted the media after the first defeat.
England were thoroughly outplayed by the Proteas at Lord’s, getting dismantled for 165 and 149 in two innings. England batters, barring Ollie Pope in the first innings, failed to occupy the crease as the South African quartet ran through their batting line-up.
McCullum defended his players and the Bazball method, saying they could go a little bit harder in the second Test. The thought of going harder after losing in three days does sound crazy but having tasted success against New Zealand and India, McCullum sees no reason to panic after the first sign of difficulty.
“There’s not much point in hitting the nets as such. For us, we’ve got very good cricketers and they’ve had a lot of cricket over their careers and they know what they’re doing.
We just need to tidy up a couple of areas. And one message will be ”Can we go a little harder?.”
One of the major talking points around England’s batting has been the unending backing of Zak Crawley, who has had only three 40s in the last seven Tests and has been dismissed for single digits in nine innings. With criticism mounting up, the head coach offered his support for the 24-year-old.
“I look at a guy like Zak and his skill set is not to be a consistent cricketer. He’s not that type of player but he is put in that situation because he has a game which means, when he gets going, he can win matches for England.”
