McCullum deflects praise after Bazball blitzes Pakistan

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.

All but two England batsmen batted at a strike rate greater than 80, and the only note of failure was the look on Stokes’ face when an attempt to hit a six with five needed landed short of the rope. He was annoyed because he would have gone past McCullum’s all-time record for six hitting in test cricket.

Stokes’ next chance to surpass that mark will come at Mt Maunganui in February, when England’s captain and coach will head for the country of their birth to continue their revolution in a two-test series against New Zealand.

The batting is the flag bearer for “Bazball” but the bowling too has been transformed. Under Stokes, 190 of 200 wickets have been taken. James Anderson has been reborn in the same year he was dropped and feared it was all over.

Robinson left Australia with his professionalism questioned publicly by the management but one chat with Stokes put him right last northern summer and he has responded with 21 wickets at 17.66 for his new captain.

He averaged 21 in the series; Anderson, of course he did, topped the averages with eight at 18.50.

One footnote for Karachi: this was the first time since 2007 England had won without either Anderson or Stuart Broad in the XI.

This tour started with questions over whether Bazball could work on dead pitches in Pakistan. It was answered emphatically on day one of the series when 506 runs were scored and four hundreds hit in the innings.

England became the first team to bat at more than six an over in a test, risking going for it on a lifeless surface to buy themselves time to win, which was invaluable as they finished it off in the fading light on day five.

Stokes out-thought Pakistan captain Babar Azam, and within three sessions of the series starting England had forced their opponents to rethink their strategy. He gambled with a bold declaration tempting a target. They had no answers.

This was not a brilliant Pakistan team, missing most of their top quicks. Next on their schedule is a two-test series against New Zealand starting in Karachi on Boxing Day.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission