McCullum insists Ashes approach can fire England to greater heights

Brendon McCullum has said that the “tremendous confidence-booster” of seeing their methods pay off against Australia’s World Test Championship-winners can power England to greater success – including in the next Ashes series in 30 months’ time.

The England coach has been a Kiwi interloper experiencing cricket’s oldest international rivalry for the first time, and clearly enjoying every moment. “I’ve looked from afar at this series and to now be a part of it and witness how special it is is something quite incredible,” he said.

But England’s experience in recent away Ashes series has been less than incredible: in four of their last five trips they have not won a single game, and their 3-1 win in 2010-11 was the only occasion since 1986 when they have won more than once. But McCullum is optimistic that this side can improve on those performances.

“It’s obviously a little way away and there’s different challenges to cross before then,” he said. “You look back to when the skipper [Ben Stokes] took over and I came in as well, [the question was] would we be able to take on a great Australian team – and they are a great Australian team – and go toe to toe with them? I think the answer is yes and that’s a tremendous confidence-booster for the group. There will be some new faces in two and a half years, there’s no doubt, for both sides, but I’d imagine it could be another cracking series when the time comes.”

Of the squad for the final Test Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali have retired, while Jimmy Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes and Mark Wood are all at least 33. England do not play another Test until their five-match series in India starts at the end of January, and McCullum said succession planning is already under way.

“What you’re trying to do is not only inspire the next generation but the layer underneath the top team, to be able to understand how we’re going to play, work out in their own heads where they fit within that and then try and force a place,” he said. “That’s what you’re trying to achieve and naturally places do come up when guys come to the end of their careers. So there will be opportunities there and we’re starting to build some nice depth.

“What will be really important by the time India comes will be dialling back in to what we’ve achieved in the last 15 months and to try and make sure the team turns up with the same clarity of thoughts when we go about things.”

McCullum admitted there were times during this series that England “got the balance wrong with the style we play”, and that they had “refined it slightly as the series wore on”, allowing them to win two of the last three games and dominate the other, which was cut short by rain.

“We have a certain style we try and exhibit every time we play. Obviously early in the series Australia were able to stand up in their own way against us and be successful,” he said. “From our point of view the most pleasing aspect is when we were under the most pressure at 2-0 down we stayed true to that and were able to manufacture some results that allowed us to walk away at 2-2.

“When you go 2-0 down in a series and you’ve played some really good cricket, you know there’s going to be some challenges. And for the skipper to be able to galvanise the group the way he did and if anything to go out stronger with how we wanted to play is testament to his leadership. From our point of view we stayed true to that [method] under the fiercest of pressure.”

England ended with three of the top four run-scorers across the series, and though Australia’s Usman Khawaja topped that list with 496, Zak Crawley was not far behind with 480, silencing his critics by averaging 53.3 with a strike rate of 88.7. “Coming into the series he was under quite a lot of pressure,” McCullum said. “The great thing was he was able to block that out – and you hope that’s down to the environment the skipper’s trying to create and sincere messaging.

“But 480 runs at a strike rate of 90 against the best bowling attack in the world, against the Dukes ball in an Ashes series, people don’t do that. As the skipper says, you look at what people’s upsides are, what their best days are, rather than focusing on things that might not be there.

“I think we’ve seen someone really grow and develop over the last six weeks or so. It’s great, not just for Zak but for all the guys around the side and around county cricket. They know when they get the opportunity, they’ll get support.”