New Delhi, April 14 (IANS) England captain Ben Stokes has quashed the talks of a rift with head coach Brendon McCullum, calling it a “massive overstatement”, but indicated that he may work with the head coach in a “slightly different way”.

England’s 4-1 defeat in the Ashes in Australia was described as a systemic failure, with poor preparation and the collapse of the aggressive ‘Bazball’ approach leaving the side exposed.

After an ECB review, the duo have been cleared to hold onto their roles and will continue as a captain-coach pair heading into the next cycle, with a home Ashes slated for 2027.

Last month, director of cricket Rob Key said there had been no “bust-up” between the two. Stokes, McCullum and Key are all to remain in their jobs following a review of the Ashes conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

In his first interview since the Ashes, Stokes told the ECB, “I’m very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now. But work together in a slightly different way. The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be.”

Stokes and McCullum joined forces in charge of the Test team in 2022 and had instant success, winning 10 of their first 11 Tests. Since then, England have had more losses than wins – 17 to 16.

“When you are in a position of leadership along with someone else, if anyone thinks that you’re always going to agree on everything, then it’s just impossible, and that’s, to me, that just not a healthy – I don’t think it’s a healthy environment for sport in particular where everyone just agrees with everyone or everyone just says yes to the person up there.

“I’m very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together, because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now. But work together in a slightly different way. The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be,’ he added.

Stokes and McCullum publicly backed each other at the end of the Ashes, but by that time given differing messages to the media, fuelling suggestions of a rift. It was reported that McCullum’s job was under threat after Stokes submitted a report blaming the team management for the Ashes defeat, with the reports claiming both men are believed to have pointed fingers at each other during the ECB review meeting.

“We’ll always be able to end up in that same place by having these discussions, and we agree 95 per cent of the time on things, but those 5 per cent things are where we might have different views.

“We talk about it between each other, and then we end up getting to the place where we both feel that with my character and Brendan’s character we put those two things together, and we’ll then end up getting to where we want to get to. But being agreeing on every single thing is just impossible, so saying that we weren’t aligned, I think, is a massive overstatement.

–IANS

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