The Ashes 2025-26: England’s Brendon McCullum admits mistakes after series defeat confirmed

After losing the first Test in Perth in two days, England also decided not to send their first XI to Canberra to play in a pink-ball practice match before the second day-night Test and instead arranged extra sessions in the nets at the Gabba.

McCollum suggested that spending less time training would have been more beneficial.

“The five intense training days leading up to Brisbane, when we knew it was going to be hot,” he said. “Some things you look at in retrospect.

“Your job as a coach is to try to put the performance on the pitch. I was confident we did the right thing but clearly we didn’t.”

In evaluating the series, McCullum also said that England’s bowlers were unable to be “accurate and precise” with the ball and failed to “register the volume of runs”. He also praised Australia as “as accurate a team as I have seen in the last few years”.

He said at times England were “so determined” and had “such high expectations” for the series that they “almost held us back”.

A relaxed environment has been a hallmark of the McCullum-Stokes system, as has an aggressive attitude with bat and ball.

“The last two days [in Adelaide] “It was our best cricket and that’s because we just played,” he said.

“When you are under tremendous pressure, your decision-making can sometimes become unclear and you don’t know whether to continue or turn around.

“That’s probably the disappointing aspect because I thought we were too rigid in our belief in the style we were going to play when we were here, knowing we were going to face challenges.

“But I think we stumbled a little bit, and again, I’ll raise my hand as a coach and say there should have been that absolute clarity about ‘whatever happens in this series, this is the way we need to play’ because that’s going to give us our best chance.”