Four games into Brendon McCullum’s reign as England’s cross-format head coach and the New Zealander has already very clearly stamped his mark on the T20I side.
England lost the fourth T20I to confirm a series defeat against the world champions, McCullum's first in charge of the white-ball sides. Here are four areas where his imprint on the side is clearest:
Clear preference for pace
The earliest indication of McCullum’s influence was seen in the pre-tour selections. Matt Potts, the pick of the England seamers in the Australia ODIs last year, Reece Topley and Sam Curran were all omitted from the two squads. In their place were Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse and Saqib Mahmood, four bowlers who operate around and above the 85mph-mark. Like with the Test side, there is a clear preference for express pace.
For the second and third T20Is, England fielded a pace attack of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, Jamie Overton and Brydon Carse – have they ever fielded a faster four-man attack in international cricket?
Aggressive use of bowlers
A longstanding issue for England in T20I cricket, even during generally successful periods, has been their new-ball threat. Even in their victorious T20 World Cup campaign in 2022, England navigated their overs in the field relatively defensively, with Ben Stokes often deployed in the opening over. More often than not, the first thought seemed to be, ‘How can we squeeze through four overs from our fifth bowler?’ rather than, ‘What is the best way to attack early?’
There have been no such considerations in India. In each of the first three games three of Archer’s four overs were used in the powerplay. The only occasion where that didn't happened was in Pune where Mahmood instead bowled three powerplay overs after starting with a triple-wicket maiden. The tendency to frontload the use of their strike bowlers can leave Buttler light on options at the end of an innings, but under McCullum that is less of a priority.
Super aggressive field placements
One of the first noticeable changes about England’s Test side under McCullum was a newfound aggression in the field; slips were closer together, and more catchers were deployed for longer. The same can be said for the T20I outfit.
The field used against Suryakumar Yadav in the fourth T20I today was unusually attacking. As well as two slips, England had a leg gully, a short-leg under the lid and a catching short mid-wicket (who had Yadav caught for nought). Sure, Mahmood was on a hat-trick earlier in the over but the wicket-taking delivery was three balls later.
Signs of aggression could be seen later in the innings, too. At one point in the 14th over with Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya on the charge, Adil Rashid conceded 10 runs off two deliveries. Buttler was unmoved by the India counter-attack and kept himself at slip for the remainder of the over to Dube despite those back-to-back boundaries. A slip in the 14th over of a T20 is unusual at the best of times, let alone after the bowler has conceded 10 runs in two balls.
High ceiling selections
One of the mantras repeated by Rob Key and Brendon McCullum over the past three years is that they are more interested in what a player can do rather than what they might not be able to do. It’s a philosophy that has seen them stick by players with middling records.
The most obvious example of that type of selection in the T20I set-up is that of Jamie Overton. At its worst, Overton can be a confusing pick – a No. 7 who looks a spot too high, especially against spin, who also doesn’t always bowl; after all, in the last five years, he has just 16 wickets across his last 74 domestic games played in England.
But at his best, he could be a T20 all-rounder like only a handful in the format’s history – a top seven batter capable of bowling 140kph. Andre Russell and Hardik Pandya aside, it’s a dual role filled by very few in recent years. While he is yet to come off with the bat this tour, his potential with the ball has been evident – four games into the tour, he has six wickets at an average of 14.16 and an economy rate of just 7.50 runs per over.
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