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As Ben Stokes stressed his commitment to leading England after losing the Ashes inside 11 days, Brendon McCullum gave his first admission of regret. Poor preparation has been widely blamed for this failed tour of Australia and, in that regard, the head coach was prepared to hold his hand up.
Speaking after the 82-run defeat at Adelaide Oval that took Australia 3-0 up with two Tests in Melbourne and Sydney to come, Stokes offered a simple “absolutely” when asked if he had the energy to continue as captain but played down England’s threadbare warm-up period.
“That dream that we came here with is now over, which is obviously incredibly disappointing,” said Stokes, at the ground where he made his debut 12 years ago. “I hate living in hindsight because you can never change what you have done. At the end of the day, it’s what you do out there that counts. We’ve not been able to stand up to what Australia have thrown at us.”
McCullum, however, took a different view, accepting that a white-ball tour of New Zealand and one intra-squad match on a slow club ground in Perth may have contributed to their downfall. Having kept things light for England’s previous five away tours under his watch and won the first Test every time, he simply believed it would work again.
“I’m sure there will be plenty of questions asked and rightfully so,” said McCullum. “We haven’t got everything right and I haven’t got everything right as a coach either. Ultimately [as head coach] you are responsible for how you get your side ready and prepare them. I had conviction in our methods, not just leading into the first Test but also in between Tests.
“I look back now and think: ‘Did we need more leading into the first and did we need less leading into the second?’ We lost 3-0 so you would probably say there was room for change there. Again, you put your hand up as a coach and say you might not have got that right. I felt it would give us our best chance because it has previously. Sitting here 3-0, it didn’t work.”
Stokes was prepared to admit shortcomings was with the ball, at least, his pace bowlers bursting out of the traps on the opening day in Perth but then struggling for discipline and going at more than 4.3 runs per over. Australia’s attack, led by the otherworldly Mitchell Starc but supported by others, successfully suppressed England’s previously attacking batting lineup.
“You just can’t be so poor with your execution as consistently as we have been over these first three games,” said Stokes. “And particularly with the ball, because when you’re off [target] here, it gets punished. They’ve just completely out-executed us in all three facets of the game.”
Before Pat Cummins got his Australia players in a celebratory huddle for a rendition of True Blue – the folk song that was played before the match to honour the victims of last Sunday’s Bondi terrorist attack – he revealed that his comeback in Adelaide may yet prove to be a one-off.
Having discovered the early signs of a stress fracture in his lower back in July, Cummins underwent an accelerated rehabilitation to play in Adelaide and saw it pay off with six wickets across the match. The Boxing Day Test may come too soon to go again, however, while Sydney is also up in the air.
Cummins said: “We had a pretty aggressive buildup [for me] knowing there was an Ashes there to be won. Now it might be a case of ‘job done’ and reassess. I doubt I’ll play Melbourne and we’ll have a chat about Sydney. While the series was alive it was: ‘Let’s take on the risk and have a crack at it.’”
One player set to miss the rest of the series is Nathan Lyon after confirmation of a hamstring injury suffered while diving to stop a boundary on the final morning. Like Cummins, the off-spinner’s return in Adelaide after being benched in Brisbane was a success, returning match figures of five for 147.
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