England head coach Brendon McCullum was a relieved man with his team winning the Test against New Zealand on Sunday at Lord’s. The result comes at a time when the England cricket team has been going through a rough patch after losing the Ashes 4-1 to Australia earlier in the year. Against New Zealand too, most of their batters could do little when facing a pitch that was difficult to bat on with seamers getting all the purchase. But they ultimately held on as they went 1-0 up in the 3-match series. “We need to be quite malleable, depending on the surfaces we get. Nothing needs to be so binary to play one certain way. We need to be able to be adaptable and to adjust when required. I thought conversations that our boys had throughout the Test match, from a coach’s point of view, were fantastic. There was a real communication unfolding, and I think that allowed us to be slightly more adaptable when we needed. Clearly, the issue on that pitch was going to be the full and straight balls here. Defensively, we talked about straightening up your defensive clock to be able to make sure we’re respecting the ball straight. But anything that had width, we were trying to throw our hands at it, knowing that it was going to be a low-scoring game, so you still need to keep ticking over the scoreboard,” McCullum said to Sky Sports. “We need to be malleable depending on the surfaces we get!” Brendon McCullum suggests a more ‘refined’ approach to Bazball on display against New Zealand 👀 pic.twitter.com/CufE2bqXSh — Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) June 7, 2026 “I thought the guys were really brave in parts. When I say brave, I don’t mean running down the wicket, swinging brave. There’ll be times where that is required. I mean brave as in, this is a tricky surface. How are we able to manipulate our guard or change where we stand on the crease? Do we come out of a crease, back in the crease? Do you stand on leg stump, off stump? Just to try and give the bowler something different to look at, because clearly it was weighted in the bowler’s favour. There was some bravery with that. To me, the communication was the best that we’ve seen for a while, and I was really proud of that,” he added. England wrapped up a 115-run victory over New Zealand before lunch on Day 4 of the first Test at Lord’s, marking a positive start to its “Bazball” reset after the Ashes humiliation Down Under. Resuming on 55-5 and requiring 254 for an unlikely win, New Zealand lost its remaining five wickets inside the first two hours of play and was dismissed for 138. England pacer Gus Atkinson finished with team-best figures of 5-30 on what has been a bowler-friendly surface at the home of cricket that has seen 24 batters out bowled or lbw, and no spinners getting a single delivery. Glenn Phillips was New Zealand’s top scorer on 44 not out, the best of a disappointing test for the tourists.
‘Need to be quite malleable, depending on surfaces’: McCullum after ENG beat NZ
