Brendon McCullum is eager to stay on as England’s head coach but admits his future is “up to other people” after losing the Ashes in just 11 days.
The New Zealander branded this winter’s tour of Australia as “the biggest series of all our lives” but saw his hopes of delivering the urn evaporate after humbling defeats in Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.
McCullum’s predecessor, Chris Silverwood, did not survive a 4-0 thrashing four years ago and questions are already being asked about who should carry the can for the latest defeat Down Under.
McCullum is keen to pick up the pieces from a desperate trip and be part of the rebuild but understands that his fate lies in the hands of others.
Asked if he would still be in charge at the start of the English summer, he said: “I don’t know. It’s not really up to me, is it?
“I’ll just keep trying to do the job, try to learn the lessons that we haven’t quite got right here and try to make some adjustments. Those questions are for someone else, not for me.
“Sometimes you don’t win, and then those decisions are up to other people. It’s a pretty good gig, it’s good fun. You travel the world with the lads and try to play some exciting cricket and try to achieve some things.
“I don’t do anything to protect the job, for me it’s a matter of trying to just get the very best out of the people and try to achieve what you can with them. I’m enjoying the time that I’ve got with these guys and I think we’ve made some progress from when I took over to where we are.
“We’re not the finished article, but I think we’ve definitely improved as a cricket team. We’ve had an identity about us.
“You’re always looking at what you’ve got right and what you’ve got wrong, and you’re not too ignorant to admit – or too arrogant either – that you get some things wrong. (It’s OK) as long as you don’t keep making the same mistakes.”
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Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain reflect on day five of the third Test, when England’s Ashes fate was sealed as Australia won by 82 runs
‘Time to show our identity’
There are two more games left, starting in Melbourne on Boxing Day before moving on to Sydney for the New Year Test. Lose both and it may become impossible for any of the key decision-makers to hold off the tide.
That means they are anything but dead rubbers for a management team and a squad looking to save their international careers.
“Now’s the time for us, in the last two Tests, to really show our identity,” McCullum said.
“What I’m trying to achieve with this team, and what the skipper’s trying to achieve, is to try and finish this tour with some pride salvaged from what’s been pretty disappointing so far.
“I’ll always have the back of my players, and always support them, and I’ll always make sure that I’m protective of them as well in a public forum. That doesn’t mean you don’t challenge privately, but in a public forum, you’re always protective.
“I wouldn’t imagine anything would change in the coming days as we look to try and salvage something from this. I have conviction in the style of cricket that I try to get the teams to play, with the players that you’ve got who are suited to it.”
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Ben Stokes reacts after England lost to Australia during the third Test in the Ashes
Sir Andrew Strauss, the last England captain to win an away Ashes series 15 years ago, has warned removing McCullum or captain Ben Stokes would not be enough to change a “depressingly one-sided story” in Australia.
Strauss wrote: “So there it is, another ambitious set of England cricketers made the journey to Australia, full of hope and optimism only for their dreams to come crashing down around them after only 11 days of cricket.
“McCullum and Stokes will come under extreme scrutiny for the decisions they took in preparation for this tour in the same way that (Ashley) Giles and (Chris) Silverwood did after the last tour. And Andy Flower after 2013-14 and Duncan Fletcher after 2006/07.
“While they will know that this goes with the territory, none of the above are responsible for England losing so incredibly consistently in Australia since 1986-87. We have been badly mauled time after time over there because Australia are a better team, served by a better high performance system.
“If we are genuinely serious about changing this depressingly one-sided story, then we need to look beyond sacking England coaches and captains and ask whether we are genuinely willing to make the changes necessary to break the trend.”
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