England succumbed to a five-wicket defeat at the hands of India in the fourth Test at JSCA International Stadium Complex, Ranchi on Monday (February 26).
With this outcome, the Three Lions conceded an unassailable 3-1 lead to India in the five-match series. It was their first Test series loss in the ‘Bazball’ era.
After adopting the ‘Bazball’ approach in 2022, England have won 14 out of 23 Tests so far but they failed to win the home Ashes series against Australia last year and now the defeat in India is drawing them a lot of flak.
However, head coach Brendon McCullum feels they are now a better team than they were 18 months ago and he remains optimistic about the future.
"There's times in games where we haven't quite screwed down our method just yet. We've lost here, didn't win the Ashes (2-2), but we're a better team than 18 months ago and we've got an opportunity in the next 18 months to do some special shit," said McCullum in an interaction with the UK media.
"We'll keep chiselling away at those rough edges. It's not a bad time to be coach of the England team," he added.
Senior England batter Jonny Bairstow has failed to live up to the expectations in the ongoing Test series against India so far.
Bairstow has registered scores of 37, 10, 25, 26, 0, 4, 38 and 30 in the first four Tests in Hyderabad, Vizag, Rajkot and Ranchi. As a result, the right-hander has come under severe criticism.
Despite the low scores, McCullum backed Bairstow to make a significant impact in Dharamsala, where he is set to make his 100th Test appearance.
"It'll be really emotional for him," said McCullum in reference to Bairstow's landmark game.
"Everyone knows Jonny's story. He is quite an emotional character at times and big milestones like that do mean a lot to him. (In this match) he walked taller, looked stronger, had that presence and that real Jonny Bairstow swagger to him. When he has that you kind of feel he's never too far away."
Pacer Ollie Robinson had a tough outing in the fourth Test in Ranchi. Playing his first match in this series, Robinson went wicketless in the 12 overs he bowled in the first innings while he was not used in the second essay.
Commenting on Robinson, the England head coach said: "Everything he did leading into the Test match suggested we'd see not just the Ollie Robinson we'd seen previously but a better version of it. For one reason or another it didn't quite work out for him. Obviously he's not just as disappointed as everyone else, he's the most disappointed out of everyone."
McCullum was all praise for inexperienced spinners Tom Hartley and Shoaib Bashir, who performed exceptionally well to claim a total of 32 wickets between them in the first four Tests.
"It will be a slight frustration of ours if they weren't given opportunities at county level. There's a very real possibility that might be the case but without wanting to dictate to counties because they have their own agendas as well.
"(But) I think you'd be slightly mad if you didn't give them more opportunities in county cricket," said McCullum.
(With PTI inputs)
