Last Updated on 5 months ago by Charbel Coorey
Brendon McCullum believes England “overprepared” for the Gabba Test, which they convincingly lost by eight wickets to go 2-0 down in the Ashes series. McCullum mentioned this in interviews with both Channel 7 and Test Match Special after England’s poor display.
“Leading into this Test match, I actually felt like we overprepared to be honest,” McCullum said on Channel 7.
“We had five intense training days and I think sometimes when you’re in the heat of the battle as we all know, sometimes the most important thing is to feel a little bit fresh and and I think the boys need a few days off and probably change up a few of the training methods a little.
“I’m a horse racing man and you wouldn’t just keep doing the same thing with your horse. You’d send it around in figure eight or jumps just to try switch it on a bit. We’ll look at some alternative methods in the next few days.
“We’ve got a couple of days in Noosa, which would be good to spend time casually and let the dust settle on what has been a pretty intense couple of weeks, and start to plot and plan our way back into the series.”
England fans not impressed with Brendon McCullum’s reaction to the Gabba defeat
Kevin Pietersen led a chorus of discontent around McCullum’s comments. “Crikey, Baz!” wrote Pietersen on X (formerly Twitter).
Truth be told, England looked underdone. They seemed spent after a day in the field, and simply lacked the grit and determination required to win in Australia. Day three at the Gabba showed the stark difference between the two sides in mentality and execution.
The visitors were simply woeful with the ball. They rarely hit the same spot for consecutive deliveries, often erring on the short side. When they pitched up, they delivered friendly doses of half volley after half volley.
“For something that Eng men’s cricket have purportedly been building up to for yrs, this seems incredibly binary,” wrote Isabelle Westbury in response to McCullum’s comments.
“Please tell me I misheard that & McCullum didn’t just say “we probably trained too much” to Aggers on TMS,” wrote England fan Adam Sutherland.
England, under the leadership of Rob Key, Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, have been very clear in the past that their ultimate goal is winning in Australia. McCullum’s comments are quite strange given England have been adamant they know what they are doing.
Let’s see what they have in store in Adelaide.
