Cricket

India Made England Timid, Admits Bazball Guru Brendon Mccullum After Crushing Series Defeat

England lost the fifth Test in Dharamsala by an innings and 64 runs to round off a 1-4 series defeat against India. Visiting coach Brendon Mccullum said his side "got more timid" as the series went on, owing to the hosts'🥂 relentless pressure

AP/Ashwini Bhatia
England captain Ben Stokes, second right, reacts after being clean bowled by India's Ravichandran Ashwin on the third day of the fifth Test match in Dharamsala. Photo: AP/Ashwini Bhatia
info_icon

England coach Brendon Mccullum has conceded that the team's much-hyped 'Bazball' approach needs some "adjustment" after India exposed its frailties and forced the visitors to become "timid" during the recently-concluded Test series in Dharamsala. (More Cricket News)

England started with a thrilling win in Hyderabad but things went downhill for the visitors from there as India bounced back in stunning manner to ta☂🌌ke the five match rubber 4-1.

"Sometimes, you can get away with things. But when you're exposed the way we have been in the back end of this serie𓆉s in particular, it does require some pretty deep thinking and some adjustment to ওmake sure we're staying true to what we believe in," McCullum told the travelling British media on Sunday.

"If anything, we got more timid as the series went on, and that was because of the pressure that was applied to us by the Indian line-up, not just with the ball. With the bat, they put⛦ us under a tremendous amount of pressure, too," he added.

Indian youngsters played a prominent role in the series win. In the absence of key players like Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami and KL Rahul, the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, and Sarfaraz Khan led the charge. The series loss was England's first in the 'Bazball' era. Ben Stokes and Co. are now winless in three series and critics have panned the one-d🍒imensional philosophy of aggres🌃sion.

"There are some things 🅷where you can get a little bit of luck on your side and you paper over a couple of the cracks. When you are exposed in the way we have been here, you know that you ܫhave to get better in some areas," McCullum said.

"The next couple of months w⭕ill be us working out that and making sure when we come to the summer we are a more refined version of what we are at the minute."

England were guilty of squandering strong chanc𝕴es in the 🍬second, third and fourth Tests while their batters displayed poor judgement, giving away their wickets.

"Whether that affected our approach a little bit and put some doubt in our minds that 💯wasn't there early in the series, I'm not really sure why at this point in time.

"They probabl🌄y outplayed us at the style of cricket that we want 🎐to play and made us start to retreat a little bit. So that's something that we will have to change," McCullum said.