by The summer that began with Brendon McCullum flying halfway around the world to end Jimmy Anderson’s remarkable England career has ended with a more powerful coach than ever. And it may well be that Josh Hull, who is due to make his Test debut against Sri Lanka at the Oval on Thursday, embodies the maverick side that has seen the New Zealander handed the keys to all three England men’s teams.
On the face of it, Hull, with 10 first-class games and a bowling average of 62, should not be ready, even in a series that is 2-0 with one game to play. But as with horses, his other passion, McCullum now favours quality over form.
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Hull is 20, 6ft 1in and left-handed. And like Jeetan Patel, England’s assistant coach who benefited from the rough outside stump created by Keith Barker at Warwickshire, Shoaib Bashir, as an off-spinner, should also benefit.
Could it go wrong for the young Hull man that day? McCullum, speaking publicly for the first time since his coaching remit was expanded and his contract extended until the end of 2027, accepted the possibility. Over the past two and a half years, he and Ben Stokes have fostered an environment that has seen five bowlers take five wickets on debut, but as someone who loves to kick, McCullum knows that past performances are no guarantee of future results.
But like Bashir earlier this year, Hull is not a gamble per se, but rather a long-term investment that is unlikely to yield immediate results. “You’re not looking for instant gratification when you pick them,” McCullum said.
“We hope he’s OK. He might take a 10-fer. But it doesn’t really matter because we see him as someone worth investing in. Whatever happens, we’re going to put our arm around him and make sure he knows he’s firmly in our sights for the future.”
McCullum sees the County Championship as a “different game” and if he were to pick a team to play in it, it would be different to the Test team. His role in Test selection is to identify the rough diamonds and “rush” their fitness for the top level through quick selections.
The same is likely to happen with the white-ball teams now that he has taken charge. It was team manager Rob Key who first approached him for advice on what to do and, after discussing it with his family in New Zealand, he said it was “a gamble worth taking”.
The 42-year-old accepts that his workload will increase and, as with the best players, he may sit out some series and let others take over. But he also believes that with a lighter schedule (he remains busy, even if fewer tours directly overlap) and his knowledge of English cricket having been enhanced by two years, his consistency in his messaging and his ability to make players feel “10ft tall and bulletproof” will iron out the wrinkles of the past caused by separate coaches.
His assessment of the white-ball team, and in particular its captain, Jos Buttler, was based on the belief that the Test team’s optimistic mantra of playing as if you were in your own backyard would be passed on as a generational change took place. Although announced before his own contract extension, the new teams that will face Australia would have benefited from his direct influence.
Buttler, he said, looked “a bit miserable” but with his legacy secured – a chance to be England’s greatest white-ball player and a two-time World Cup winner – now, at 33, was the time to play with a sense of enjoyment.
If McCullum can unblock that and redress an increasingly pessimistic culture that, during the T20 World Cup, led to a player being asked by a member of the management group to apologise to his team-mates for a missed shot, then Buttler’s tenure, albeit interrupted by injury, could yet see a resurgence in form. Obviously, that will still involve an expanded talent pool, with bilateral white-ball series likely to remain the testing ground and global tournaments – there’s a Champions Trophy, a T20 World Cup and a 50-over World Cup before his contract ends – the time to give it his all.
Related: Brendon McCullum’s most urgent task is to change England’s mood in favour of the white ball
On the Test side, the previously tidy narrative arc that had England looking to peak in the series against India and Australia next year is now more open-ended. While not ruling out the possibility that things could change – ask Matthew Mott – McCullum’s final assignment will be the 2027 Ashes on home soil. It’s a series he expects Stokes to play in, even though the all-rounder will be 36 by then and they haven’t talked about it yet.
After two years of opening up and questioning old norms such as strike rate, this summer has been about refreshing the team and making better decisions in pressure moments. Ollie Pope, although he has struggled to score runs of late, impressed McCullum as stand-in captain.
That this has been possible while maintaining a winning streak – England can win every Test of the summer at the Oval, the first time that feat has been achieved since 2004 – may also say something about the quality of the opposition; a growing sense that, rather than being the cyclical nature of the sport, the so-called ‘Big Three’ of England, India and Australia are beginning to drift apart.
“I don’t have an answer,” McCullum said, while touting the summer’s tourists. “But it would be nice if it were a competitive, well-funded, well-supported event around the world.”
Maverick’s choices of Hull and Bashir defy past conventions and raise eyebrows among county cricket supporters, but on his last point, everyone is surely in agreement.
