Ben Stokes has revealed that new head coach Brendon McCullum would have looked past Stuart Broad’s recent poor run with the bat and promoted him to No.8 if England had lost a wicket late on the third day of the Lord’s Test against New Zealand.

Broad, who has one hundred and 13 fifties in Test cricket, has not had a great time of it of late with the bat in international cricket. Since the start of 2021, the quick averages 7.81 from 17 innings, scoring 86 runs with a best of 15, having not batted above No.9 in this period. He has batted at eight just once in the last four years in Test cricket.

However, Stokes revealed that McCullum was keen to back Broad’s batting, and would have pushed him up to No.8 in the search of quick runs had either Joe Root or Ben Foakes lost their wicket in the last session of the third day. Chasing 277, England were 159-5 before Root and Foakes came together and saw off the last hour of play. They eventually stitched together an unbeaten 120-run stand, taking the team to only their second Test win in 18 matches.

However, if a wicket had fallen shortly before the close on day three, fans would have seen Broad walk in ahead of Matt Potts (who batted at eight in the first innings) with Stokes stating that McCullum wanted him to just “go in and have a slog.”

“Last night, when Foakesy went out to bat, he was going to send Broady in if we’d lost a wicket to go and have a slog just to score 30-40 runs, the game’s done,” he said. “That’s the kind of stuff that we are not used to in the dressing room. Those kinds of things will do us the world of good. Just those tiny little things, the confidence, the energy that he brings about his mindset towards the game.

“If Broady walked out last night, and went off and flayed 20 or 30, pretty sure, you guys [media] would have been like, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ That’s what he’s going to do. He’s just going to make everyone feel 10 foot taller in any situation that we’re in and I’ve really enjoyed working with him so far.”