Kolkata, Jan 20 (IANS) Having transformed England’s approach to Test cricket with his concept of an all-out aggressive approach to batting, Brendon McCullum takes his coaching concepts to the slam-bang T20 cricket when he takes over as coach for a five-match T20I series against World Champions India starting at the Eden Gardens here on Wednesday.
McCullum, the promoter of Bazball cricket in the longest format of the game, steps into white-ball cricket with the five-match T20I series followed by three ODIs against India and leading up to the Champions Trophy in Pakistan and Dubai in February-March. On Monday, the former New Zealand opener, who is quite known in India for hammering an unbeaten 158 off 73 balls for Kolkata Knight Riders in the first-ever match of the Indian Premier League in 2008, said he will attempt to change England’s approach and make them play freely rather than going for victory in every match.
As they get ready to take on the reigning T20 World Champions, McCullum said England’s batting lineup is “as powerful as anyone’s in the World” and said he will try to get the best out of every player.
“Obviously, we want to win every game we play, to try and be successful, and that’s ultimately the mission for us,” McCullum was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo in a report on Monday. “But our conversations and the language which we use within the dressing room is quite different.
“It’s about trying to get the best out of the talent that sits within the dressing room, trying to gel the guys as best we can, trying to work out complementary skills, and how we play the style of cricket that gives us our greatest chance,” the England coach said in an interaction at the Eden Gardens.
“I’m desperate for us to play a really watchable brand of cricket,” he said. “With the talent we have, there’s no reason why we can’t. We’ve got a batting line-up that is as powerful as any batting line-up in the world. We’ve got gun spinners, very good fielders, and guys who bowl absolute rockets with the ball, so you’ve got options there to be able to entertain and give yourself the greatest chance of success,” said the 43-year-old coach.
Though McCullum was given the dual responsibility of England red-ball and white-ball teams in September 2024, this will be his first white-ball series as head coach because in between he had coached the team on Test tours of Pakistan and New Zealand while Marcus Trescothick filled in as interim coach for ODI series.
McCullum’s England will start with the first T20I at Kolkata on Wednesday before travelling to Chennai (Jan 25), Rajkot (Jan 28), Pune (Jan 31), and Mumbai (Feb 2) for the remaining four T20Is. The ODIs will be played at Nagpur (Feb 6), Cuttack (Feb 9) and Ahmedabad (Feb 12). England will later fly to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy.
England will take on arch-rivals Australia in their first match of the Champions Trophy at Lahore on February 22.
–IANS
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