Brendon McCullum has snapped England out of the torpor, breathed fresh life into the players and now overseen a historic clean sweep of Pakistan. Not that the Kiwi is looking for plaudits.
“I do bugger all, to be honest. It is a really easy job. Don’t tell my bosses,” McCullum said after his England side had clinched the third test to become the first team to whitewash Pakistan in their own country.
England needed just 38 minutes on Tuesday night (NZT) to knock off the 55 runs required and win by eight wickets in Karachi. Ben Stokes made it nine wins out of 10, and three series victories in a row. Who remembers the England team who so recently won only once in 17 tests? It must have been a bad dream.
Almost exactly a year ago the England players were made to sit through video footage of their dismissals in the pink-ball test hammering at Adelaide. It is impossible to imagine this regime dwelling on failure in such a tortuous way. “Like a completely different team,” said Ollie Robinson.
This year they have scored 22 hundreds — an England record — by eight different players, hitting more sixes, 88, than any other team have managed before, just a year after equalling their own record for the most ducks. England batted at 5.5 an over in this series; never before have they scored quicker than 3.7 away.