Brendon McCullum admits England 'weren't quite good enough when it mattered'

The 3-1 scoreline might not suggest it but India vs England Test series has run close. After England won the opening Test in Hyderabad, they’ve been beaten in Visakhapatnam, Rajkot and Ranchi to concede the five-match series. In Rajkot and Ranchi, England have had the opportunity to surge ahead but squandered the advantage. That, England coach Brendon McCullum, believes has been their undoing.

In the third Test, played in Rajkot, England looked good at 209/2 in response to 445 after the second day’s play. Then they had the fortune of R Ashwin dropping out mid-way due to personal reasons. It left India a bowler short mid-way through the game with Ben Duckett looking in good touch. However, India produced an inspired bowling performance the next day led by Mohammed Siraj as England slipped to 319 all out.

In Ranchi, England were in even better position. On a wearing surface, England’s 353 looked more than competitive and at 177/7, India were in the corner. However, Dhruv Jurel and Kuldeep Yadav’s 76-run stand denied the visitors a potential 100-plus lead. In the target defence, England fought until the very end but the damage had been done.

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Reflecting on the series, McCullum admitted that England hadn’t won the vital moments enough. The New Zealander, however, remained optimistic about the team’s Test future.

“We’re disappointed we’ve gone down in the series, but at the same time we’re really proud of the efforts of the guys.” said McCullum on Tuesday. “We’ve had our moments throughout this series, we’ve performed well at times and been outplayed in others. It’s been a great contest and you’ve got to acknowledge that India, at the times where the game has been sitting on the line, have really stepped up and performed.”

“We weren’t quite good enough when it mattered. Or India were better, to be honest, than us being not quite good enough. We’ve lost this series and we didn’t win the Ashes but we’re a better cricket team than we were 18 months ago and we’ve got an opportunity in the next 18 months to do some pretty special shit. I’m fizzing for it, to be honest.”

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“Time on the tools, experience and just keep chiselling away at any of those rough edges which creep up every now and then, which is natural, and we’ll get there eventually.”

One of the major revelations from the visitors’ camp has been the challenge shown by the inexperienced spinners after Jack Leach suffered an injury in Hyderabad. In his absence, Tom Hartley, Shoaib Bashir and Rehan Ahmed have done a tremendous job.

Hartley, in his debut series, is the leading wicket-taker with 20 wickets from four matches, having produced a seven-fer in England’s win in the first Test. He’s also contributed with vital runs down the order. Ahmed (11 wickets in three games) and Shoaib Bashir (eight wickets in his second game) have been equally useful.

McCullum lauded the efforts of the youngsters, especially Hartley and Bashir, and hoped they would get more exposure in the upcoming domestic season.

“I think that’s really important. Both of those guys have been outstanding in this series. When we picked Tom and Bash, there was probably a little bit of hesitation from others, and from us there was a bit of apprehension, too. We thought they had the skills, but will they be good enough at this level? What we’ve seen is they are definitely good enough.”

“It will be a slight frustration of ours if they weren’t given opportunities at county level. There’s a very real possibility that might be the case, but without wanting to dictate to counties, because they have their own agendas as well, when you see performances like we have out of those two bowlers throughout the series, I think you’d be slightly mad if you didn’t give them more opportunities in county cricket. Hopefully, we’ll see them get plenty of chances and if it’s not for them, then it might be for us.”

The final Test, from 7 March in Dharamsala, will mark Jonny Bairstow’s 100th Test. It comes at a time when the middle-order batter has been struggling for a big score despite getting starts. He’s mustered 37, 10, 25, 26, 0, 4, 38 and 30 across four Tests. McCullum backed the experienced batter to come good in the milestone Test.

“Jonny loves a milestone. He won’t shy away from that. He’ll play. It’ll be really emotional for him. Everyone knows Jonny’s story and he is quite an emotional character, so big milestones mean a lot to him. It’ll be a really emotional time and we look forward to sharing it with him.”