England set to begin white-ball era under coach McCullum in T20 series vs India

England begin their white-ball era under Brendon McCullum in a Twenty20 series against India beginning in Kolkata on Wednesday with the coach promising the same attacking brand of cricket that has been the hallmark of his coaching.

McCullum injected an aggressive approach to the Test squad after taking over in 2022, with Matthew Mott continuing to coach England in the shorter formats.

However, Mott stepped down last year after England failed to defend their T20 and 50-overs World Cup titles in the space of seven months across 2023-24 and McCullum was tasked with reviving their limited-overs fortunes.

“Obviously, we want to win every game we play, to try and be successful, and that’s ultimately the mission for us,” McCullum said ahead of his first white-ball series in charge, which includes five T20 Internationals and three one-dayers (ODI).

“I’m desperate for us to play a really watchable brand of cricket. With the talent we have, there’s no reason why we can’t.

“We’ve got a batting line-up which is as powerful as any batting line-up in the world. We’ve got gun spinners, very good fielders and guys who bowl absolute rockets with the ball, so you’ve got options there to be able to entertain and give yourself the greatest chance of success.”

The former New Zealand captain is convinced Jos Buttler’s “best years are yet to come” and said the England captain would not be keeping wickets, with Phil Salt likely to stand behind the stumps in the T20 matches.

World champions India will be keen to see how seamer Mohammed Shami fares in his return to international cricket after more then a year out nursing an ankle injury that required surgery.

Captained by Suryakumar Yadav, the squad are without pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who is recovering from back spasms.

The seamer is expected to play at some stage of the three-match ODI series between the sides that follows the T20 matches and will lead India’s attack in the Champions Trophy beginning next month.

Meanwhile, England captain Buttler is excited with the prospect that they have a ‘full line-up’ for the white-ball series. The wicketkeeper-batter emphasised that there is no workload or injury concern in the squad in the build-up to the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan and Dubai.

“It’s a really exciting tour, coming to India with what I’d say is a full line-up for us. You know sometimes there’s so much cricket that certain players have to be rested or managed. But that’s certainly not the case for us at all in this series. So we’ve got a full complement of players, which is really exciting. Obviously, Baz is coming into the white-ball set-up for the first time too,” Buttler said on the eve of the T20I series opener.

“(I) also want to build that captain-coach alliance. Obviously, it’s not a new set-up because Baz has been around for a while and there are a lot of players in this squad that have been with him in the Test set-up for a number of years already.

“So, yeah, just looking forward to building that relationship in the white-ball set-up. It’s going to be a great series against a really top side in their own conditions. So, loads to look forward to,” he added.

Buttler also highlighted England’s formidable balance in their squad as they possess multiple batters who can bowl in the limited-overs format, providing vital depth in their batting order. “That gives a lot of depth to the XI and confidence to the guys at the top that there’s plenty (of batting) to come.

Agencies