The Ashes: Questions for England after Australia defeat – should Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes stay on and who comes into Test team? | Cricket News

With England left to lick their wounds after yet another Ashes drubbing in Australia, we look at the most pressing questions facing the team as they address the fallout from their 4-1 series defeat…

Should McCullum and Key keep their jobs?

The expectation is that both head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director of men’s cricket Rob Key will keep their jobs, with any calls to axe the former complicated by the fact he is due to lead England’s white-ball side in the T20 World Cup next month.

A statement from ECB chief executive Richard Gould following the 4-1 series defeat said “necessary changes” would be made.

But that might not specifically refer to personnel and more a change in approach from the ‘Bazball’ mantra that proved so successful when first introduced following the appointments of Key, McCullum and Ben Stokes as captain in 2022 – winning 10 of their first 11 Tests – but has faltered since.

However, McCullum, who is contracted to until the end of the home Ashes in 2027, stressed following England’s five-wicket loss in the final Test in Sydney that he wouldn’t be prepared to terminate the team’s front-foot approach.

“It is not about ripping up our script completely,” McCullum told Sky Sports’ Nasser Hussain. “From when we took over to where we are now, we are a better cricket team.

“I take offence to (any suggestion I don’t want to evolve). I am not against evolution, I welcome it. I am not rigid in my beliefs but I have conviction in my methods.

“That doesn’t mean you are blind to progress but to throw everything out that has worked in pursuit of something completely unknown doesn’t make any sense.

“I am keen to carry on in the role. Those decisions ultimately aren’t up to me but the lessons we will digest from this tour and what we have built, it would be a shame to rip that up and chase something no one knows whether it will be successful.”

Who could and should join coaching staff?

England’s wider coaching staff on tour in Australia has also come in for greater scrutiny, with Key and McCullum having vastly reduced England’s bloated backroom team that last toured Australia in 2021-22.

But have they stripped things back too much? There was no specialist fielding coach employed on this series that yielded a massive 18 dropped catches by the visitors.

McCullum argued it was “not for the lack of trying,” adding that “there is a lot of franchise cricket on and the franchises pay a lot more than we do.”

Such a franchise commitment also meant Tim Southee served as a fast-bowling consultant for only the two-day series opener in Perth, with David Saker – part of the triumphant 2010-11 touring staff – filling the role in his absence.

Are England lacking in a more consistent voice in addition to McCullum’s and that of batting coach Marcus Trescothick and spin specialist Jeetan Patel, and perhaps one to act as a counter to the Bazball rhetoric?

Sky Sports’ Michael Atherton has just the man, calling on former England opener and captain Sir Alastair Cook to come in as an assistant.

“When Brendon came in with Ben (in 2022), it was post covid and everybody was ready for the liberation that McCullum and Stokes provided,” Atherton said on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

“It was a bit of a beaten down team and everybody was ready to feel a bit better about themselves.

“That liberation and freedom was perfect for the moment, but the team are at a different stage now. It has some younger players, like Jamie Smith, who need to learn about Test cricket and learn about hard, disciplined, winning cricket.

“Which was my point about Alastair Cook, an example of somebody coming in to provide a different voice, a different challenge and drive high standards.”

Cook, in his role as a broadcaster for the series on TNT Sports, said ahead of the final Test in Sydney there had been “zero contact” with England regarding a possible role on the coaching staff – but that he would like to work with the side at “some stage in my life”.

Is Stokes still right man as captain?

The short answer is yes.

England are a bit short on alternatives, to be honest, with former vice-captain Ollie Pope dropped from the side and his leadership replacement Harry Brook issued a ‘final warning’ after an altercation with a nightclub bouncer in New Zealand last autumn. Add that to some irresponsible batting throughout the series and he obviously still has some growing to do.

Stokes certainly wants to continue on in the role, telling reporters at the end of the series: “I’m keen as anything to carry on.

“I love having a challenge thrown at me and, at the moment, the challenge is getting the team back to where we once were in terms of the performances we were delivering.”

Stokes also appears eager to lead a bit of a cultural reset in the team’s approach, as evidenced by his dogged, rearguard innings in Brisbane and Adelaide earlier in the series.

The skipper’s 152-ball 50 at The Gabba and 198-ball 83 at the Adelaide Oval appeared at odds with the approach of his top-order batters who repeatedly gifted their wickets away, while they also came either side of calls for his team to “show a bit of dog”, adding Australia “isn’t a place for weak men”.

Stokes’ frustration with his side seems to have been building for a while, as he told TNT Sports: “We play too much 3/10 cricket, and if you play like that the likelihood is it’s not going to fall your way in big moments.

“I have seen it a lot in this series and in other series before.”

Stokes’ injury issues are of great concern going forward, with a groin complaint suffered on day four in Sydney the latest issue to hobble him, while his on-field captaincy wasn’t as sharp as we’ve become accustomed to.

“Tactically he’s not been at his best, it’s probably the worst series I’ve seen him have as a captain,” Broad said on the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast. “And, dare I say, it looked like he wanted it too much.”

“You care so deeply about it, it’s been a goal of his for over 18 months but maybe he applied a bit too much pressure on himself to deliver. He just looked stressed throughout the whole thing.”

But asked if he’s still the best man for the job, Broad was unequivocal. “100 per cent,” he said.

Which players should England build the side around?

There is little in the way of positives to take from the series, though the performances of Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue stand out since coming into the side – making their absence at the start of the series all the more glaring.

Tongue took 18 wickets at 20.11 a pop – including a first-innings five-for in England’s sole victory in Melbourne – after his introduction from the third Test onwards.

Bethell, meanwhile, had to wait until the series was done to have his first taste of Ashes cricket but then gave a nod to the brightest of futures with a sublime maiden Test century in Sydney as his 154 gave England a glimmer of hope of forcing a final-day victory.

Jofra Archer can be included in the positives column, even though a side strain ruled him out of the final two Tests.

Having only returned to Test cricket following a four-year absence to injury in July, Archer bowled with good pace throughout the three matches he played, as much as Steve Smith might argue he only “bowls fast when there’s nothing going on, champion” as per their confrontation in Brisbane.

Archer provided the perfect riposte in claiming his first Test five-for since 2019 in the third Test in Adelaide before injury struck. Though, thankfully, his inclusion in England’s T20 World Cup squad next month hints at it not being too serious a complaint.

Joe Root finally scratched that itch of scoring a first Ashes century in Australia, coming away with two of them – in Brisbane and Sydney – albeit with not many telling contributions besides.

The 35-year-old is still certainly one to build the side around though, Root even entertaining the prospect of playing on England’s next Ashes tour of Australia in 2029-30, saying he’d “love” to be involved.

Then there’s the curious case of Brook. The No 2-ranked batter in the world copped a fair bit of flack throughout the series for finding new, inventive ways to get out as he threw away numerous promising starts.

His second-innings duck in Perth was the only time he was dismissed for less than 15 in the series, yet he registered just two fifties from his 10 innings.

McCullum is sticking by him, however. “He averages 55 in Test cricket; he is generational talent with a very aggressive game,” he told Sky Sports.

“I think there’s a slight misconception because of how he gets out that his output is not significant – 55 is world class. He is 26 years of age and his best years are still in front of him.”

And, finally, despite a desperately poor series with the bat, numerous dropped catches and a drunken video from the team’s mid-series break in Noosa, Ben Duckett might just have enough credit stored up to see him remain part of England’s future.

Who is vulnerable – and who could come in?

The same perhaps cannot be said of Duckett’s opening partner Zak Crawley.

As has seemingly been the case throughout his entire 64-Test England career thus far, there are questions surrounding his place in the side.

Former captain Michael Vaughan said Crawley “frustrates the life out of me”, but believes England should persevere with the opener, telling Test Match Special: “I know there is a lot more in the tank and I do think England have to stay with him.”

Hussain isn’t quite so convinced, however. “What worries me about Crawley is, I think if he plays 90 Test matches that he’ll average 31 (as he does),” Hussain said. “I think over the course of his first-class career he’ll average 32 (as he does).

“I hope he proves me wrong, I hope he goes and kicks on. But we keep hoping that; he has the same stats wherever he plays, whatever he does. Is that good enough for England?”

If patience is finally lost with Crawley, 21-year-old left-handed talent Ben McKinney from Durham – a former England Under-19s captain – looks likely to be the next cab off the rank, while another U-19 prodigy in James Rew could be considered over the frazzled Jamie Smith at wicketkeeper.

Last summer, Rew became the youngest Englishman (at 21 and 114 days) to score 10 first-class hundreds since Denis Compton in 1939 and was called up to the England squad for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe before being overlooked.

After Smith’s horror-show of a series, summarised most notably by his disastrous dismissal to a Marnus Labuschagne drag down in Sydney, could he benefit from a spell out of the side like the one set to be afforded his Surrey team-mate Ollie Pope, and perhaps even Gus Atkinson?

Atkinson missed the final Test with a hamstring injury after taking just six wickets across his three outings, with Broad critical of the England quick. “His body language is not of a Test match bowler in the battle,” he told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast. “He has work to do on that.”

And then there’s the issue of who is England’s front-line spinner?

Jack Leach has been discarded, and Tom Hartley and Rehan Ahmed overlooked in favour of a two-year experiment with young Shoaib Bashir which has, at times, proven fruitful but has left the 22-year-old considered ‘unelectable’ on this tour as he’s lost his spot to Will Jacks.

Jacks isn’t the answer going forward, so do England persist with Bashir – currently without a county contract – do they turn back to Leach or could a new name like Sussex’s Jack Carson come into the fold?

How do England avoid another Ashes humbling in 2029-30?

In truth, there’s no guarantee things will be different in four years’ time.

Root and branch reviews have followed previous England Ashes failings in Australia, prompting changes in management, captain, personnel, but not a change in fortunes.

This was the series that was supposed to be different, that was supposed to address a combined 14-0 scoreline over the prior three tours. Bazball – and the players identified to play it – were picked based of their suitability for Australian conditions.

And yet, here we are, with the ECB promising another “thorough review” and “necessary changes” after another series drubbing that did, at least, include a first Test win in Australia for 15 years.

The most ‘necessary change’ that must be made with regards to the 2029-30 tour is in England’s preparations.

Sir Ian Botham, Geoffrey Boycott and Vaughan were among those to challenge England’s decision to play an effectively intra-squad game against the Lions as their only pre-series tune up, with Stokes labelling them “has-beens” in response bef.

He’d later apologise, saying “I got the words I said completely wrong”, while McCullum has since admitted that the team’s limited preparation – played out at Lilac Hill on a notably slower surface from the one that they would be blasted out on inside two days on in Perth only a week later – was an error.

“They had so little cricket before the first Test, I don’t think they were match ready for an Ashes tour,” Atherton said. “Coming to Australia is a different cricketing culture, the crowds here, the kind of ferociousness of the experience, I think you need to be game ready and game sharp for it. They weren’t.”

It meant England were ill-prepared to take on what proved to be a depleted Australian side that was shorn of premier fast bowler Josh Hazlewood for the entire series, captain Pat Cummins for four Tests, Nathan Lyon for three and a half and even Steve Smith for one.

England will look back at this series as a real missed opportunity but with Lyon 38 years old, Smith 36, Hazlewood along with Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland all 35, and even Cummins 32, it will surely be another weakened Australia outfit to welcome the tourists in four years’ time.

England must get the preparation right next time in order to take advantage.

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