Brendon McCullum on his side’s disappointing Pakistan series despite being in the lead after the first test.
Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach, says his team have “no excuses” after crashing to a 2-1 series defeat.
He acknowledges that he was taken aback when Pakistan didn’t prepare the spinning wickets that have been his team’s downfall on previous subcontinental visits until the second Test.
After England’s brutal victory on a flat deck in the first Test in Multan, where they easily defeated an apparently impressive first innings of 556 to post 823 for 7, the fourth-highest Test total ever, with Harry Brook setting up their innings win with a career-best 317, Pakistan had nowhere to run to.
With spinners Sajid Khan and Noman Ali sharing 39 of England’s next 40 wickets, Pakistan changed their fortunes after altering their selection panel and customising the ensuing surfaces with the help of heaters and industrial fans. Their opponents managed to score just 814 runs in their final four innings of the series.
The outcome not only represents a significant change from England’s 3-0 victory in Pakistan two years prior, but it also follows their 4-1 defeat in India in February. As a result, England has now lost six of their last seven games, all by significant margins, after winning four straight in Asia under Stokes and McCullum.
“That’s life,” McCullum told Sky Sports after England’s nine-wicket defeat. “We obviously coughed up the opportunity to win the series. We did some good stuff throughout, and we leave ultimately disappointed, but also very much complimentary of how Pakistan played. But we know within ourselves that we’ve had an opportunity to have been better than that and we’re a little bit disappointed about that.
“Credit to Pakistan, the way that those two spinners bowled was superb,” McCullum said, after Noman and Sajid had combined to rout England for 112 in their second innings in Rawalpindi.
“I thought they varied the pace beautifully. Noman from one end, taking pace off most of the time with the occasional fast one, and Sajid flipping that around and putting pace on with the occasional slow one. I thought was great partnership bowling. And our guys weren’t able to sustain the pressure, unfortunately.”