Home
England team's head coach Brendon McCullum intends to make a team that the English fans are proud of. The Ben Stokes-led side are yet to make the World Test Championship (WTC) final and will begin the upcoming campaign with a five-Test series against India at home. McCullum wants this side to shoot for the stars.
"We're not trying to pick this team up any more," McCullum told the BBC Radio 5 Live Cricket show.
"It's a matter of taking this team from a good team into being something English people are really proud of.
"We're actually travelling pretty good but there's an opportunity now. We're working from a position of strength but now's the time where we shoot for the stars."
McCullum considers England 'favourites'
With senior trio Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin retired, McCullum sees his side as favourites at home. However, he wants the team to have their feet planted to the ground and not crumble if put under pressure.
"We want to be where our feet are," he said.
"This game has an amazing ability to bring you back down to earth if you don't have the respect for the game or the respect for the opposition.
"We go into it as favourites so we need to make sure we're rock hard fit and ready to go and make good decisions under pressure."
McCullum lauds Stokes
The former New Zealand captain lauded Ben Stokes. He feels that England are lucky to have him. The all-rounder will make his return against Zimbabwe in one-off Test after recovering from hamstring injury.
"He is unbelievably driven, to push himself, to push his team-mates, to win at all costs," he said.
"We're very lucky to have him in the chair because he's going to be very strong about trying to push this team to the next level."
Meanwhile, India are yet to announce their new Test captain. While there are concerns around Jasprit Bumrah's fitness, 25-year-old Shubman Gill is the frontrunner for the role.
ADVERTISEMENT
