Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh): England coach Brendon McCullum admitted that the team's ultra-aggressive 'Bazball' approach needs some refinement after India exposed its frailties and forced the visitors to rethink their strategy, putting some doubt in their minds during the recently-concluded five-match Test series.
England’s style of playing received praise from their countrymen for not losing the Test series since the introduction of new captain Ben Stokes and coach McCullum’s pair after a disastrous outing in 2021 under the captaincy of Joe Root.
The visitors also began the series with a thrilling 29-run win in the Hyderabad Test courtesy of vice-captain Ollie Pope’s masterclass 192-run knock in the third innings, but things went downhill for them from there as India bounced back in an extraordinary way, powered by many youngsters including few debutants, to take the five-match rubber 4-1.
"Sometimes, you can get away with things. But when you're exposed to the way we have been in the back end of this series in particular, it does require some pretty deep thinking and some adjustment to make sure we're staying true to what we believe in," McCullum told the travelling British media on Sunday.
"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," he added.
In the absence of key players like Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami and KL Rahul, youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal and Akash Deep played a pivotal role in India’s record 17th consecutive series win at home and handing England their first series defeat in the 'Bazball' era.
"There are some things where you can get a little bit of luck on your side and you paper over a couple of the cracks. When you are exposed in the way we have been here, you know that you have to get better in some areas," McCullum, who captained New Zealand from 2013-16, said.
"The next couple of months will be us working out that and making sure when we come to the summer we are a more refined version of what we are at the minute."
The Three Lions were guilty of squandering strong chances, playing foolish shots and not converting the starts in the big scores in the whole Test series. However, England’s both spinners including right-arm off-spinner Shaoib Bashir and left-arm orthodox left-arm spinner Tom Hartley were the find of the series.
Hartley played all five tests of the series and was the leading wicket-taker for the visitors while Bashir, who missed the first due to visa issues, played three games and picked up 17 wickets including two fifers.
"Whether that affected our approach a little bit and put some doubt in our minds that wasn't there early in the series, I'm not really sure why at this point in time,” McCullum, who holds the record of fastest century in Test cricket, commented.
"They probably outplayed us at the style of cricket that we want to play and made us start to retreat a little bit. So that's something that we will have to change," McCullum concluded.
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