It’s the end of an overseas winter, and Rob Key once again has a 'Big Decision' to make.
First he had the appointments, the blokes taking over: Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum, Matthew Mott. Then there was the big Ashes selection, full commitment to the game plan, Zak Crawley persisted with, Jonny Bairstow preferred over Ben Foakes. Then a change of course, Mott axed, Anderson moved aside, all-in on Baz. Now it’s Jos Buttler’s successor, the next big call that Key will have to make.
As with choosing the Test captaincy, Key’s task is to find a right answer where none seemingly exists. Harry Brook filled in recently and is basically the only player under 30 guaranteed of his spot in both sides, but he also has to balance three formats and is at the lowest ebb of his international career so far. Aligning the McCullum-Stokes axis across all formats is tempting, but Stokes’ workload concerns are even more pressing than Brook’s. England surely can’t pile more onto those hamstrings. Ben Duckett and Liam Livingstone are the two guiltiest of “talking a lot of rubbish”, as Key puts it. An outsider candidate, Sam Billings or James Vince, would appease some of the obsessives, but would also mean slotting a player deemed surplus to requirements into an already misfiring batting lineup.
Also read: Rob Key - stupid not to consider Stokes as England white-ball captain
Unlike with the Test captaincy, however, ‘no one’ could genuinely be the answer here. England will play very few meaningful limited-overs games between now and next year’s T20 World Cup, and that competition looms as a potential wrecking ball for any nascent new era, in conditions England are likely to struggle in following on from 10 Tests against the best two sides in the world. Until then, pick your squads and then your captain. Draw some of the sting out of the job. Gather some knowledge. Afterwards, when the 2027 World Cup in South Africa becomes the next big target, is the time to choose who you want leading you into it.
Key insists that “nothing is off the table”. Could that include getting rid of the table altogether? Throughout his tenure he has made a point of embracing the unorthodox, or at least challenging every assumption along the way. Occasionally this can mean he says things like ‘We have to get better in the subcontinent, there’s no doubt about that,” as if it’s a great realisation, and it can feel at times as if English cricket is being run like a tech start-up. Bowl Fast and Break Things. “One of the errors we made was we took far too many seamers out there,” Key says of the Champions Trophy debacle. The Department of Cricketing Efficiency has to spend two years asking the question of whether England have moved past the need for Liam Dawson to find out that, yes, England do still really need Liam Dawson.
But while it’s easy to poke fun at much of this, and that more and more are doing so is indicative of an increasingly fractured relationship between England’s team and its public, it’s largely a result of a well-intentioned line of thinking. The task facing anyone in charge of the England men’s cricket team is to find in-house, creative solutions to problems whose roots lie far beyond their control, and to which few before have come close to solving. The domestic game neuters and grinds down young spinners, so through aggressive talent ID, Key is trying to grab the most promising before that happens, with Jafer Chohan the latest subsumed into the set-up. A similar approach has been taken with anyone who can exceed bowling speeds of 87mph.
That England can’t bat is a problem that will require a different answer, since there’s no substitute for time spent in the middle to learn the rhythm and flow of a 50-over innings. In lieu of a full domestic restructure - Key will be asked his opinion but won’t be a significant figure in an ongoing review - the solution as it stands is just to go all in on McCullum, with the hope that with enough time and care he can take Jamie Smith or Harry Brook and mould them into being a top-rank strike-rotator. It’s some challenge for “a world-class coach”, as Key labels McCullum, but also a figure now facing the most pressing challenges of his tenure so far.
It’s easy to question the second McCullum appointment in hindsight, wonder if England needed a details man rather than a vibes guru. There’s no going back, but it’s also hard not to fear that the consequences could extend beyond a broadly meaningless world title spurned. “There's always a way in England, I think, where you start looking at, 'what if it goes wrong?'” Key says. “You've also got to think, 'what if it goes right?'” In general, it’s a laudable philosophy. The cost for a bad selection rarely extends beyond one game or series, excluding any reputational damage. Picking the safe option, the leading County Championship run-scorers and wicket-takers, hasn’t helped England compete in Australia or India over the last decade. But McCullum’s white-ball appointment is different. So much of his tenure has been founded on his mythology, a complete commitment to Total Baz. The Champions Trophy is the closest we’ve come to puncturing that bubble. The worry is, if the summer starts badly, the whole thing could come crashing down.
For all the bluster, Key remains in credit through his stint, and when you pick through his calls, there are more hits than misses, some unequivocal successes and few unmitigated failures. But his tenure will be judged on the next nine months. There are selection calls to be made, plans to be formalised. But the decisions that matter have largely already been made. The ball is in motion. Now to see where it rolls.
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