Brendon McCullum reacts after England’s 4-1 loss to India

Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, has reacted after his side’s crumbling 4-1 defeat against India in a recently concluded five-game Test series. He stated that Ben Stokes and Co. were “exposed” by India and they require “deep thinking'”.

England made a solid start in the series, winning the opening Test in Hyderabad by 28 runs. However, they failed to maintain their momentum, losing the rest of all four games against Rohit Sharma’s men.

“Sometimes you can get away with things, but when you’re exposed in the way we have been in the back end of this series in particular, it does require some pretty deep thinking and some adjustment to make sure we’re staying true to what we believe in. If anything we got more timid as the series went on and that was because of the pressure that was applied to us by the Indian line-up,” McCullum told BBC Sport.

For the unreversed, the series defeat against India marked England’s first in the ‘Bazball era.’ Notably, England have won 14 Tests from 18 matches before this series. Stokes had stated that count this team out at your peril after the defeat in the final Test in Dharamshala. However, McCullum stated that the coach and captain are “fiercely competitive”.

“Whilst you guys know me as a pretty relaxed person, I still have a fierce drive to ensure that we will get this team to where we want to get to. That will allow some reflection over the next few weeks, then we start plotting towards rectifying what has unfolded here and becoming the team we should be. We like to operate in a really calm, enjoyable and positive environment, but we don’t mistake that for not having tough conversations when they are required,” the head coach added.