Mccullum: We’ll go hard at India after no-cricket break
Brendon Mccullum has promised England will “drop the shoulder and go hard” at India after returning from a mid-tour rest in Abu Dhabi, where they will not take their cricket kit.
The series, dubbed a “heavyweight fight” by Mccullum, is perfectly poised at 1-1 after England’s 106-run defeat in Vizag, as the tourists leave India for the sort of break with their families that is increasingly a feature of modern touring.
Mccullum, the head coach, said there would “not be a whole lot of training” in Abu Dhabi, despite the facilities being so good that England prepared for the series there. This time, the order is relaxation, to the extent that players are not expected to take their kit.
One who will, however, is Dan Lawrence, the reserve batsman, who will turn out for Desert Vipers, the franchise team he was playing for before he was called up to cover for Harry Brook, who is at home because of a family emergency and not expected to return.
In what is surely a first for an England player on tour, Lawrence is expected to play for the Vipers in the International League T20 on Friday and Sunday. He is likely to be the only England player to do so, despite others having affiliations to teams in the competition.
“It will be pretty relaxed,” Mccullum said. “There will not be a whole lot of training. The boys have worked incredibly hard in Abu Dhabi, keeping in mind they all came here with a lot of cricket under their belt as well. We have had plenty of training days, two varying Test matches, and this is an opportunity to step away from the heat of the battle.”
While the move had the potential to offend their hosts, the Board of Control for Cricket in India has laid on a charter flight to facilitate the trip, which ends on Monday when England fly to Rajkot for two days’ training ahead of the third Test. Later in the tour, there is another long break, during which England will stay in India.
During the Ashes last summer, Australia’s players took holidays across Europe with their families to recuperate. Mccullum promised England would return ready to “drop the shoulder” – a rugby expression in his native New
Zealand which means to charge aggressively at the opposition.
“I was talking to Rahul Dravid [the India coach] and he mentioned all his boys are shooting home as well,” he said. “Home for us is a little way away so we chose Abu Dhabi and we are going to enjoy the families. Then, when we get to Rajkot, we drop the shoulder and go hard.
“We sit 1-1, which is a fair reflection that we’re in the contest. We’ve played some really good cricket over the last two Tests. Yes, we have come out on the wrong side of it here but we got it across the line in the first one. The conviction about how we go about it is as strong as it ever has been.
“It is not good losing but we walk away saying we gave it a good crack in this Test and India are deserved victors.”
As England leave the country, there are two headaches to manage. Senior spinner Jack Leach looks increasingly unlikely to be available for the third Test because of the badly bruised knee he picked up in the series opener in Hyderabad. He is one of a number of players to have gone down with a virus, but he is said to still be in pain and has not yet been able to train.
“I don’t really know [how the injury is] because he has been crook [ill],” Mccullum said. “His knee is pretty bad and it was remarkable he got through what he did in the first Test. It is still pretty inflamed. We had a number of guys who were ill in the Test, too, and whether it was a virus or not, we’re not sure. Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley, in particular, too, but they did not want to shirk it.
“We will never use that as an excuse, but hopefully that will subside and we will see where Leachy sits for the next one.”
The other issue is Joe Root’s batting form, but Mccullum believes he will score heavily when the series resumes. In England’s doomed chase of 399 on Monday, Root fell for a frantic 10-ball 16, which gave him a tally of 52 runs for the series.
“He’s a world-class player and as good as any player England has ever seen,” Mccullum said. “His method in the second innings, whilst people will look to the dismissal, he was trying to get the field back, so he could milk them. It is the bravery you have to take at times, and sometimes you get out doing it, but that’s just the way the game rolls. There is no doubt, from our point of view, in that approach. There are three Tests left, still an opportunity to score a whole ton of runs.”