England head coach Brendon McCullum is ready to roll out an unchanged batting line-up for this week’s crunch Ashes Test in Adelaide, insisting he will not be swayed by questions over his future.
At 2-0 down with three to play, England cannot afford another slip-up if they are to win the Ashes but they are set to give their error-prone top seven another chance.
Ollie Pope, who averages 18.71 in 14 innings against Australia with a top score of 46, looked most vulnerable to a challenge from Jacob Bethell but McCullum spoke strongly in favour of retaining the status quo.
Pope duly took his place in the catching cordon as England returned to practice for the first time since losing in Brisbane a week ago, indicating that he would hold the spot.
Asked if there would be changes in the batting group after some costly collapses, McCullum said: “I wouldn’t have thought so. Knee-jerk reactions and chopping and changing settled batting line-ups is not really our way.
“We know we haven’t got enough runs so far in this series but for us to go on and win this series, it’s not about throwing out what has been successful for us over the last few years. It’s about having more conviction.
“It’s about making sure we have our plans and our disciplines around it just screwed down a touch more. Making sure when we walk out there we have utter belief in what we are capable of achieving.”
Defeat in South Australia would end England’s hopes of reclaiming the urn in brutally premature fashion, the kind of result that turns up the heat on those in charge.
McCullum was unmoved by the suggestion that his job could be on the line in the coming weeks and claimed insulating himself from scrutiny was not a motivating factor in decisions.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t really bother me to be honest,” he said.
“Professional sport, it’s not easy and you do the job to the best of your ability. I certainly don’t coach to protect the job. I coach to get the best out of people and that’s the same with the skipper.
“We both go about that in our same way with the same level of conviction and that won’t be changing this week just because the prize is at its highest. I firmly believe that if we play our best cricket, we have a massive chance in this Test match. If we do that, then the narrative changes and the series momentum changes. That’s all in front of us to achieve in the next few days.”
McCullum found himself in the spotlight after England’s eight-wicket defeat at the Gabba last time out after suggesting his side were “overprepared” for the game following five net sessions.
Given the abundance of criticism that the tourists have drawn for a light-touch approach to their warm-up schedule, it was a provocative choice of words. And he appeared to suggest that was in part a deliberate attempt to steer the post-mortem away from the team.
“What you say to them and then what you say in the media can be quite different. I’ll always protect my players and if that means that it puts me in the spotlight, I have no problem with that,” he said.
“As much as you don’t want anyone reading the media within your set-up, sometimes it happens, right? So you’ve got to be able to be savvy enough to be able to make some plays, which will hopefully allow you to buy some time and buy your squad some time.
“I’m happy to wear that. Not everyone will agree with it but at least the focus is on me and not the lads.”
