Key made it clear when he was appointed England managing director two years ago that the decision to split the coaching roles was more pragmatic than principled. “The shortlist has gotten better… almost all of them have said, ‘I won’t do this if it’s just one,’” Key said. “You want the best talent and you build a structure around them.”
In fact, that is exactly what Key has attempted with this gamble. Under McCullum, England’s Test cricket has been completely transformed. He has overseen 19 wins, eight losses and one draw, and has given them a clear identity that they sorely lacked. Key believes he can do the same with the stagnant white-ball set-up.
It’s a call that underscores the importance of perception. England have played excellent Test cricket under McCollum but have yet to win a series against the world’s No. 2 side. They drew with Australia last summer and were crushed in India earlier this year. Still, there is a sense that the team is on the rise, after five clinical wins this summer.
The pitfalls of McCullum’s new role are hidden in plain sight. Only India plays more men’s international cricket than England, and England play more Tests than anyone else. Their outrageous playing schedule is summed up in a 24-hour turnaround between the scheduled end of the fifth day of the upcoming third Test against Sri Lanka and the start of the T20I series against Australia.
Key insisted that the “constant clash between formats since January” has eased, but the cricketing schedule remains substantial. McCullum is expected to have little hesitation in handing over the reins to one of his assistants for a number of bilateral series over the next three years, much as Rahul Dravid did during his tenure in India.
The problem lies further ahead, and there is a dilemma familiar to England captains and coaches over the past 20 years: how do you plan for both the Ashes series and the World Cup immediately following? It is akin to a tennis player winning Wimbledon and then boarding a plane to Flushing Meadows, or an athlete being asked to compete in the World Championships immediately following the Olympics.
McCullum will need four months of peak performance from his players in the winter of 2025-26 and the summer of 2027. It is a scenario England have always struggled with. Nasser Hussain (2003), Michael Vaughan (2007) and Andrew Strauss (2011) all led depleted squads to 50-over World Cups immediately following Ashes tours, with predictable results. Buttler faced a similar situation last year when England’s multi-format players underperformed in India.
Buttler was one of the players who struggled when the turnaround happened five years ago. England’s 2019 World Cup triumph was the pinnacle of the white-ball revolution under Eoin Morgan, and the players were exhausted physically and emotionally, but the home Ashes series followed soon after. England drew 2-2, but were out of the game.
As Australia’s impressive World Cup record proves, climbing Twin Peaks in quick succession is not an impossible feat. Only three players from the Australian team that beat India in Ahmedabad last year had not played on the Ashes tour before the World Cup. Andrew McDonald succeeded in both ways, something that British coaches have avoided.
More directly, McCullum’s job is to inject some energy into a white-ball set-up that felt hopelessly underwhelming after being knocked out of the T20 World Cup in June. He will watch from afar for the next 14 games under Marcus Trescothick on an interim basis before making his mark on a short tour to India before the Champions Trophy in February.
The biggest unknown for McCullum will be his relationship with Buttler. Buttler idolised McCullum as a player but has never played or worked with him, and his captaincy has come under scrutiny after England’s semi-final defeat to India in Guyana. While Buttler has the balance of power over Mott, McCullum will have to be strong enough to take the lead.
England believe they have a new core of young players who can be regulars in all formats over the next decade. They include Harry Brook, Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson, who have shown an aggressive style in McCullum’s Test team. This is simply the latest step in Key’s attempt to bridge the gap between the two codes. It is a gap that is in danger of becoming a chasm.
It is barely two years since McCullum made it clear to Key that he had no intention of playing England’s white-ball teams. Morgan had turned them into not just regular semi-finalists but trendsetters in the global game. Now, with them falling behind, he is charged with another revival.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
