The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB)’s decision to retain head coach Brendon McCullum, Test captain Ben Stokes and team director Rob Key after a poor performance in the Ashes tour has surprised many, including Australian legends Adam Gilchrist and Mark Waugh.
Many were expecting major changes in the England camp after the 1-4 Ashes defeat to Australia earlier this year, but the ECB decided to continue with the same leadership. After the Australia tour, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes had openly expressed their desire to remain coach and captain.
Gilchrist says short interval before next Ashes saved Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes’ jobs
After the shock move by the ECB, Adam Gilchrist feels Stokes and McCullum have managed to save their jobs as the next Ashes series in England is a little over a year away.
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Fox Sports quoted Adam Gilchrist as saying, “There’s only 14 or 15 months until the Ashes return series starts, so you probably think, ‘Okay, this might be a slightly shorter stint to do a thorough job and start a new approach with someone else.’
So perhaps that has worked in their favour, and the fact that the recently completed T20 World Cup was definitely going on, and they managed to have quite a successful tournament in that regard (also helped).”
Adam Gilchrist warns of deep problems within the England camp
However, the great Australian wicketkeeper-batsman warned that England’s problems are not small and should not be ignored. He referred to what Liam Livingstone had said earlier: The England team management was not communicating properly with the players.
Livingstone felt that he was not getting proper feedback or guidance from the coaches, which reflected a lack of communication within the team. Gilchrist has made it clear that England clearly need to make changes as players are not able to perform at their best due to lack of communication.
Gilchrist said, “But already there are some small fractures visible from the comments of other people who were not so comfortable, like Liam Livingstone and so on. But they have survived. Now it is up to them whether they think they need to change the approach or not.”
Also read: ‘Most of the ECB hierarchy should be sacked’: England legend criticizes decision to retain Brendon McCullum
Mark Waugh criticized ECB’s decision, said- England should learn a lesson or else have to suffer more losses
Meanwhile, Mark Waugh was not impressed by the ECB’s call. He believes that England’s aggressive style works only on flat pitches, but this method completely failed in difficult places like India and Australia. He stressed that Stokes and McCullum have to change their approach.
Waugh said during the same discussion, “It was probably a 50-50 call. A lot of people probably thought England might need a new direction, but they have shown faith in Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes. But there’s no doubt that they have to change their ways. Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes are not stupid. They will realize the mistakes they made on the Australia tour. They will have a chance to turn it around.”
The former Australian batsman is hopeful that the England coach and captain duo have learned their lesson and if they do not learn the lesson then they will face more losses than wins in the next 12 months. Waugh signed off by saying, “The evidence is about to come out. Let’s see if they learn from their mistakes.”
