England coach Brendon McCullum admitted he got things wrong with the team’s Ashes preparation after their series loss to Australia was sealed in Adelaide.
Australia won the third Test by 82 runs, wrapping up the Ashes early, and England’s lack of proper warm-up matches has been heavily criticised. McCullum accepted responsibility, saying he did not get everything right and openly “put his hands up” for the mistakes made as coach.
England only played one warm-up game before the series and chose intense training sessions instead of practice matches, decisions that McCullum now admits may have backfired. He said England’s bowlers were not accurate enough, the batters did not score enough runs, and Australia were simply more precise overall.
McCullum also said England may have put too much pressure on themselves and lost clarity in how they wanted to play. While he believed their approach had worked on previous tours, he admitted it didn’t work this time, especially with England now 3-0 down in the series.
