Brendon McCullum not to ditch Bazball; says England ‘better’ than 18 months before

England tasted their first Test series loss under head coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes amid criticism of the Bazball approach that did not work in India.

India took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the ongoing Test series with the fifth and final Test starting in Dharamsala on March 7.

'India were better'

Will England shelve the aggressive Bazball strategy? Here is what McCullum told the media following the fourth Test defeat to India in Ranchi.

“We weren’t quite good enough when it mattered – or they (India) were better, to be honest, than us being not quite good enough. Against Australia (in Ashes), we had our chances and weren’t quite able to get across the line. This team is still developing as a team. We’re a good cricket team. I think we’ve got the opportunity to be a really good cricket team,” McCullum said.

According to the former New Zealand captain, England have not yet “screwed down” on their method yet.

McCullum enjoying his time as coach

“There’s times in games where we haven’t quite screwed down on our method just yet. I still think sometimes we get outside the element of what needs to be done in the moment... or we have too much noise in our mind, so we need to find a way to be really totally present when those times arrive, identify that this is a crucial moment in the game, and try and strip away all the external stuff and just make a decision, and make it work.

“If we do that, I think we’ll see this team go to the next level. We’re going good. We’ve lost this series and we didn’t win the Ashes (2-2) – but we’re a better cricket team than we were 18 months ago. And we’ve got the opportunity in the next 18 months to do some pretty special s**t. We’ll keep chiselling away at those rough edges. It’s not a bad time to be coach of the England team,” he explained.