IND v ENG: ‘We got timid as series went on’ – Brendon McCullum on Bazball getting exposed against India

Dharmendra2 kumar

getcricketnews|11-03-2024

England Test coach Brendon McCullum is not shying away from accepting the thrashing his team suffered at the hands of India in the recently concluded Test series.

After winning the first Test in Hyderabad dramatically, England lost the remaining four Tests to go down 1-4 in what was thought to be a tight contest between two top nations.

Speaking after his team's loss by an innings and 64 runs in the fifth and final Test in Dharamsala, McCullum admitted that Bazball - a name media gave to England's fearless and ultra-attacking approach since Brendon and Ben Stokes took over the charge, got exposed big time and, it's time for some uncomfortable confrontations to ensure players in the dressing room are honest to their motive of providing entertainment to the fans.

"Sometimes, you can get away with things," McCullum said.

"But when you're exposed the way, we have been in the back end of this series in particular, it does require some pretty deepthinking and some adjustment to make sure we're staying true to what we believe in," the head coach added.

Accepting the result in utmost honesty and reflecting on where they went wrong, McCullum said "as the series went on, England's approach from being fearless went to being timid," something that contradicts their style of play in Tests, resulting in them going down in each of the last four Tests.

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"If anything, we got more timid as the series went on, and that was because of the pressure that was applied to us by the Indian line-up, not just with the ball. With the bat, they put us under a tremendous amount of pressure, too," McCullum said.

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