India v England: Can Brendon McCullum's Midas touch turn white-ball sides to gold?
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Two-and-a-half years after becoming England’s Test head coach, Brendon McCullum is starting the job many thought he was destined for in the first place. McCullum was, it seemed, being lined up for the white-ball position when first interviewed by the England & Wales Cricket Board in 2022, but swerved what he viewed as a “cushy” job in favour of the rather more seismic challenge of reviving a desperate Test team.
![[Brendon McCullum, England head coach, during a nets session ahead of the first T20 between India and England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/01/21/10/56/brendonmccullum21012025b-jpg.jpeg?trim=40,0,299,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
From this month’s tour of India, which begins on Wednesday, McCullum unites the roles, steering the red-ball side towards the winter’s Ashes while adding responsibility for a limited-overs outfit that was not long ago dual world champion but, in 50-over cricket in particular, has lost its way.
![[Brendon McCullum, England head coach, alongside Brydon Carse and Phil Salt during a nets session at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/01/21/11/45/brendonmccullum21012025c-jpg.jpeg?trim=24,0,258,0&quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
His reign starts with a five-match T20 series, but with the Champions Trophy only a month away, it is the three one-day internationals that follow that matter most. McCullum’s task on that front is perhaps even stiffer than the one he inherited with the Test team, or at least comes with a narrower pathway to success.
Yes, he would work miracles in turning a record of one win in 17 Tests into 10 out of 12 across his first year in charge, but that was never the brief. The Test team was in such a spectacular rut when McCullum came in that neither managing director Rob Key nor England supporters were banking on the overnight transformation of that thrilling first Bazball summer, and certainly not demanding that they go to Pakistan and win 3-0. Had McCullum done half as well as he did in that period, he’d still have been doing all right.
