Brendon McCullum, England’s coach, said that Ben Stokes is “hurting” after struggling to make an impact in their 2-1 series defeat in Pakistan, but has backed his “tough bugger” captain to return to his best in New Zealand next month.
Stokes returned from two months on the sidelines with a torn hamstring ahead of England’s second Test in Multan last week but failed to contribute as Pakistan staged their comeback. He apologised to his players for losing his temper following a string of fielding lapses in the second Test, bowled 10 wicketless overs in the series, and made 53 runs in four innings, with two slapstick dismissals.
After England’s nine-wicket defeat in Rawalpindi, Stokes said that the last three weeks had “felt like a very long tour” due to his intense rehabilitation, which McCullum suggested had inhibited his performance both as a batter and as a captain.
“That injury was quite a significant injury,” McCullum said. “He had to work incredibly hard to get back. As the driven athlete he is, he’s all in when he does something. He had to put in a lot of graft there, and subconsciously, it can… not cloud things, but maybe you’re not quite as screwed down as you can be in terms of decision-making.
“That’s natural, as long as you learn from that and make sure next time you’re presented with that situation you’re able to block out the noise and stay crystal clear in the moment. He’s disappointed, but he’s our skipper and we know he’s a tough bugger. He’ll make sure he’ll come back and it’s our job to make sure we wrap our arms around him and help him along the way.”
The series defeat was only England’s second since Stokes took over from Joe Root as captain two-and-a-half years ago, but both have come in the subcontinent this year. The first, a 4-1 loss in India, prompted McCullum to call for “refinement” ahead of England’s home summer, but this time there is only a short turnaround before their three-match series in New Zealand.
McCullum said it would be his own responsibility to ensure that England’s management are consistent in their messaging. “We all know how competitive and driven the skipper is,” he said. “He’ll be hurting right now, with how the series has unfolded. It’s my job to make sure I’m there to support him, and make sure we still remain on-task with what we are trying to do as a collective, and our messaging to the group about how we want to keep playing cricket moving forward.
“Sometimes as leaders, if you do suffer a little bit of disappointment yourself, it can be very easy to allow that to permeate through in your messaging to the group. But since Stokesy came on board as captain, he’s been very clear and precise about how he wants his team to play.
“What’s really important is to never flinch with that and stay true to it, even if you’re struggling yourself. You’ve still got to keep using the same messaging. He’ll be better for the run, no doubt: a couple of weeks off, freshen up and back to conditions which are a bit more similar to back in England. It’s another opportunity for us.”
England have lost six of their eight Tests in Asia this year, and are not due to return to the subcontinent until a two-match series in Bangladesh in February 2027. McCullum said the team would look back with “disappointment” and this tour and that their method in spin-friendly conditions needed to be “a little bit better” than it has been
“If we’re being honest with ourselves, we’ve had opportunities to put up a better record than that, so it’s disappointing,” McCullum said. “You don’t get too many opportunities to nail down big series in the subcontinent. We’ve had those chances, and we weren’t quite good enough.
“I know we don’t come back to the subcontinent for a couple of years, but there’s still times even in other countries when we’re presented with spinning wickets, and we’ve got to make sure our approach is a little bit more screwed down, a little bit better than it is. That will be some of the conversations we have.
“It’s a matter of trying to get that environment to a place where it’s confident, it’s clear and the messaging is very simple. With failure, sometimes it brings about a little bit of deeper thought and that’s something we’ll have to do over the next little while.
“We’ve also got a very quick turnaround for the New Zealand series, but we have to make sure we’ve learned some lessons from this and be better when we get the chance. That’s the nice thing: we do get an opportunity, and it would be nice to bounce back in New Zealand.”
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98