England's defeat at the hands of Afghanistan that knocked them out of the 2025 Champions Trophy was their ninth defeat in ten matches with Brendon McCullum as white-ball coach. Serious questions must be asked about what he brings to the setup, writes Yas Rana.
Sometimes one ball sums up a tour, or even an era.
The Burns first baller in 2021 and the Harmison wide in 2006 spelt doom, foreshadowing subsequent weeks of fruitless Ashes toil.
Jamie Smith’s mistimed and misexecuted attack against Mohammad Nabimay have a similar resonance in the weeks to come as England pick up the pieces of a third meek assault at a global white-ball title on the bounce. Smith’s early show of aggression came with the odds stacked against England’s top order, keeping the opposition in the early ascendancy. It was England’s 2025 in a nutshell.
First, the facts. The glory days of English white-ball cricket are firmly in the rear view mirror. Since the start of the 2023 World Cup, they have lost 11 out of 14 games against Full Member nations. This year, they’ve lost nine of their 10 limited overs matches and are now in danger of falling to eighth in the ODI world rankings. They have played like what they are: a side that qualified for the Champions Trophy by the skin of their teeth.
There were clear parallels between their two Australia and Afghanistan performances. A lack of incision in the middle overs with the ball, a wheels-off feel to the end of their innings in the field and an early collapse with the bat that saw Joe Root walk out at four in the first six overs.
If the listlessness in the field can in part be attributed to choices made in personnel – in choosing an attack that lacks variety and depth – the familiarity in failure with the bat feels like, to some degree at least, a product of internal messaging.
Take the dismissal of Smith today. Smith was the face of the Bazball refinement in the Test summer, an immensely talented young batter capable of taking the game away from you in a heartbeat, but also someone with the nous to navigate tricky situations. On England debut, he took 98 deliveries to reach fifty before going through the gears, dispatching Jayden Seales not just over the rope but over the stands.
He is a skilful, game-aware cricketer, which makes his dismissal – an attempted aggressive shot down the ground off the first ball of spin bowled in the innings – all the more confounding, especially so given his similarly early failed show of aggression against Australia. He is not the only player at fault. Brook played a similarly wild shot in the first ODI, trying to hit his second ball from Adam Zampa into the stands. It leaves you wondering what the internal messaging is.
There is now a generation of players in the England team not brought up on a diet of 50-over cricket. More so than most professional cricketers, they need a degree of nurturing.
At the moment, batting for 50 overs feels an almighty challenge for England and, from the outside at least, it doesn’t look like there have been concerted efforts to address this.
When batting first, they have played out the full 50 overs just twice in their last eight outings. Phil Salt has been an ODI cricketer for three and a half years but has faced more than 30 balls against a Full Member nation just three times in 27 attempts. Harry Brook averages 30 in the first innings of ODIs. Liam Livingstone is a batting all-rounder whose bowling is keeping him in the XI as England battle to fill the void that Stokes’ absence has created. Smith averages less than 20 from nine games. That all leaves a lot for Duckett, Root and Buttler to do.
After the end of the game, Buttler spoke about how England would now “consider all possibilities” around leadership personnel. He is now more likely than not to resign from the captaincy given that his leadership is the common denominator across the last three tournament exits.
Whatever happens around his future, there must also be serious questions about what Brendon McCullum brings to this white-ball group. This has been a disastrous start to his stint as limited overs coach. At the end of the English summer they went toe-to-toe with a strong Australia side despite not having a full contingent of players available themselves. The failings this year have been familiar and they are more dogmatic than pragmatic. If anything, England have gone backwards.
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