“We won’t back down” - Brendon McCullum confirms England will continue its ‘Bazball' approach in remaining four Tests

England head coach Brendon McCullum has confirmed that the Ben Stokes-led England team will continue with its Bazball approach in the remaining four Tests of the ongoing Ashes 2025-26 campaign after starting the series on the back foot. 

For the unversed, England suffered an eight-wicket defeat in the first Ashes 2025-26 Test in Perth. Interestingly, the Perth Test got concluded in two days, courtesy of Travis Head’s attacking century on a tough batting wicket.

Speaking exclusively to TNT Sports, McCullum asserted that while there will be a lot of chatter on their eight-wicket defeat to Australia, he added that they will not lose their confidence during the 12-day break ahead of the second Test in Brisbane. 

“We’ve been trying to insulate against reacting to things too much for a little while. We know that this one’s going to hurt, and it’s going to hurt not just us, but all the English people that follow this cricket team as well,” McCullum said to TNT Sports.

“There’ll be a lot of chatter. For us, it’s a matter of making sure that we don’t allow our confidence and our camaraderie to dip too low. We know that at our best, we’re a very good cricket team. We have now got an extended amount of time off over the next 10 to 12 days to make sure that when we get to Brisbane, we bounce back,” he added.

Interestingly, England was in a commanding position with more than a 100-run lead, losing only one wicket in the second innings. However, they could add only 100 more runs before getting all out, which raised concerns among many in the England cricketing fraternity. 

“One of my big beliefs is you’ve got to build that unity, that cohesion, the connectivity and that camaraderie within a team for when you are under the biggest pressure, and the brightest lights, and things haven’t worked out accordingly. To me, there is no other way other than to stay together, and keep backing one another, and keep heading towards the target. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve had a very bad day, but we’ve done it before. That’s our blueprint. We’re married to that, and we won’t back down from that over the next four Tests,” the head coach concluded.

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