England Cricket is going through exciting times with Brendon McCullum in charge of the Test side, recently he spoke to the media and gave insights about how he is going to lead English cricket back to the top in the longest format and answered questions about the future of Moeen Ali and Jos Buttler.
England is set to face New Zealand in their first assignment this summer and has announced the squad for the series which has given glimpses of what Brendon and Stokes will bring to the table.
The 13 members squad for 3 match series includes old workhorses- James Anderson and Stuart Broad while newbies like Harry Brook and Matthew Potts who took County cricket by storm this season also find their place in the squad. Clearly, performance is going to be the main criteria under McCullum for selection but they are looking for that X-Factor to revamp English cricket.
Recently Brendon McCullum attended his first press conference after becoming coach of England and answered the million-dollar question on the future of white-ball specialist cricketers like Joss Butter, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, and Liam Livingstone in his Test side.
Brendon himself was a similar kind of player who was labelled as one format player but he defied the expectations and succeeded in the longest format of the game as well.
Moeen Ali, Jos Buttler, and Adil Rashid are in McCullum’s plans
According to reports, Moeen Ali has confessed his intentions to Brendon McCullum about his intentions to come out of retirement and be part of the English set-up in Test cricket. Speaking to rumours, the kiwi legend has not ruled out the return of Moeen Ali but wants him to prove his metal in red-ball cricket.
McCullum said “I’m sure if Mo [Moeen Ali] wanted to [play Test cricket] and was prepared to put the yards in to make it back into the side then he’d challenge, no doubt.
Embed from Getty Images“Livingstone, Moeen, Rashid. All these guys have played international cricket before, been successful in the other forms of the game and you’d think they’d be able to transition across, but we’ll see.
He also answered about the future of Jos Buttler who is going through the form of his life in white-ball cricket, Buttler has scored more than 800 runs in IPL this season which has again swirled demands of his inclusion in the Test side on the basis of recent form.
The Lancashire batsman was dropped from the English test side after his disastrous campaign in Ashes where he averaged 15.28. Buttler is yet to crack the code of red ball even after playing it for more than 8 years and has only 2 centuries to his name in 57 matches.
Brendon gave his verdict on Buttler’s future saying: “Jos is one of those players you look at instantly and think how could he be so dominant in one form of the game and not quite have found his feet, other than a few fleeting performances, in Test cricket?
“There’s no reason why, if you’re good at T20, you can’t bring those skills into Test cricket.
“There’s certainly guys you look at and think there’s a lot of talent that could improve the side given the right opportunity. It’s just a matter of trying to identify how they’re going to do that.
The poms will be facing blackcaps at Lord’s on June 2 which is going to be a tough task for McCullum in his first outing as England’s coach. New Zealand has had an upper hand over England in tests in recent years and is the favourite to win this series, especially after last year’s triumph.