‘Brave when we needed to be’: McCullum hails England for leaving Ashes baggage behind

Brendon McCullum praised his players’ refusal to be haunted by their nightmare winter, after England won the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s

Brendon McCullum has praised his players’ refusal to be haunted by their nightmare winter after England won their first Test since the Ashes, against New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday. The head coach admitted that “the temperature has been a bit hot” around his side since their failure in Australia, but he hailed their bravery and refusal to “carry any baggage”.

McCullum insisted his team had kept the Bazball spirit burning, despite the low scores and strike rates seen on an “incredibly challenging” surface. “I’ve been really impressed,” McCullum said.

“The guys haven’t carried any baggage. They’ve come here and put their plans and preparation into work. They’ve executed when the pressure was at its highest and ultimately have got success.

“There was some progress there. There’ll be other periods during the series when we’re challenged in different ways. There might be occasions when the game is drifting and we’ve got to create things a bit more.

“I thought we were brave at times when we needed to be. Bravery for me is not necessarily about running down the wicket and trying to slog every ball. There are times when you will need to do that, but there are also times when subtly you can change things up a little bit.

“Even in the first innings, our boys shifted their guard on a number of occasions, they tried to bat out of their crease and deep in their crease, they talked about trying to rotate the strike, absorb pressure, and manipulate the situation. To me, that’s brave. What’s not brave is doing the same thing over and over again and just expecting the bowler is going to miss on a surface like that.”

On the subject of the pitch, which has been widely condemned and forced the MCC to issue an apologetic statement at the end of the game, McCullum was measured. “I guess you probably wouldn’t want to play on that pitch every week, but from a fans’ point of view I kind of didn’t mind it,” he said.

Both of McCullum’s big selection calls for the first Test of a widely trailed post-Ashes reset came good, with the opener Emilio Gay’s second-innings 57 the largest individual score of the match and Ollie Robinson, on his return to the side after an absence of more than two years, taking seven wickets including three in a spectacular first over on Thursday. “Sport doesn’t often serve up fairytales, but this was a small one for Robbo,” McCullum said.

Gay had presented a challenge for McCullum, with the coach having to rein in the 26-year-old’s excitement before his Test debut. “A week ago I felt like things were spinning a bit for Emilio,” he said. “[There] was a little bit of work to do just to calm him down. It’s natural. He’s an emotional guy and he wears his heart on his sleeve. It means a lot to him to represent England. That’s natural and it’s pretty hard to suppress those emotions and be able to handle the extra stuff you have to when you come to international cricket, and be able to do it straight away.

“Very few people can do that and there’s a process you’ve got to go through. That was our job and ­Emilio’s job, to slowly settle himself to the point where he got to the start line feeling ready, confident and like he didn’t have to be anyone else other than himself, and to trust the game that got him to this level. He did that and he would have grown immensely from his week’s work.”