England captain Ben Stokes says any suggestion he and coach Brendon McCullum are not aligned \u201cis a massive overstatement\u201d.<\/p>\n
Were there disagreements between them during their Ashes debacle in Australia? Yes.<\/p>\n
Was it any different than normal? No.<\/p>\n
Stokes and McCullum have been in lock step since 2022, and they crashed and burned when they lost to Australia 4-1 last winter. Both men supported the other after being humbled, but the Ashes review threw up signs of tension.<\/p>\n
Stokes wanted to play more conservatively, while McCullum wanted to double down on all-out attack.<\/p>\n
Since the Ashes, Stokes has kept a low profile. When he and McCullum kept their jobs last month following the Ashes review, he posted on social media that he was happy to continue working with McCullum and the post-Ashes period had been the hardest period of his captaincy.<\/p>\n
The captain has used an in-house interview with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to address his relationship with McCullum.<\/p>\n
\u201cSaying we weren\u2019t aligned, I think, is a massive overstatement,\u201d Stokes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in a position of leadership along with someone else, if anyone thinks that you\u2019re always going to agree on everything, then it\u2019s just impossible. To me, that isn\u2019t a healthy environment for sport, in particular. You need debate. You need discussions. Then you end up getting to the place you both want to end up getting to.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs similar as Brendon and I are, we\u2019re also dissimilar in other areas as well. We agree 95 per cent of the time on things, but those 5 per cent things that we might have different views on, we talk about them between each other and then we end up getting to the place where we want to get to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stokes hasn\u2019t played in the County Championship since breaking his cheekbone in a freak accident in pre-season training with Durham. But he\u2019s set to return in May before New Zealand arrives in June for a Test series. Pakistan follows this summer, and Australia comes to England in 2027.<\/p>\n
As was recommended in the Ashes review, England\u2019s leadership will tweak what it does with the team, and Stokes has welcomed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very confident in mine and Brendon\u2019s ability to be able to work together, because we\u2019ve done it for such a long period of time now, but work together in a slightly different way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main point of Brendon and me is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be. That\u2019s always been the thing since we started. It might just look a little bit different now than how that operates after four years of working together. Hopefully we\u2019ll still be together at the end of 2027, winning what we want to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Published on Apr 14, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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