Ben Stokes plotting England's 2027 Ashes campaign with Brendon McCullum, but wants 'very proud' pair to work in 'different way'
Published 14/04/2026 at 12:59 GMT+1
Captain Ben Stokes is looking forward to a bright future alongside head coach Brendon McCullum following England’s disappointing outing in the 2025/26 Ashes series Down Under.
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England succumbed to a humbling 4-1 defeat to Australia earlier this year, leading to scrutiny over McCullum’s future in his role.
But the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have since confirmed that McCullum will continue as head coach. Stokes himself has been very open about his desire for McCullum to remain in the position.
And with home Test series against New Zealand and Pakistan to come this summer, Stokes says he hopes their partnership will continue beyond this year and into the 2027 Ashes.
"With what me and Brendon have been able to achieve with the group over a four‑year period, I just couldn't imagine doing what we're trying to do with anyone else," Stokes said in a video released by the ECB.
"We're both very proud men in what we do. We put a lot of our heart and soul into this job.
"Brendon certainly has for the four years he's done it so far, and hopefully we'll still be together at the end of 2027, winning what we want to win.
"I'm very confident in mine and Brendon's ability to work together, because we've done it for such a long time now - but work together in a slightly different way.
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"The main point for me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning and making this team as good as it can be. That's always been the case since we started.
"It might just look a little different now after four years of working together. We still want to win everything, and we still want to give the guys the best chance they possibly can of being as good as they can be."
‘Massive overstatement’
England’s display in Australia during the winter led to criticism from many quarters about the team’s preparations and attacking philosophy.
England’s gung-ho style, which has been coined ‘Bazball’, often led to dramatic batting collapses and handed the more cautious Australia some big victories.
The heavy series defeat brought scrutiny over McCullum’s future, as well as raising questions about whether there was a clash of styles between Stokes and his head coach.
But Stokes dismissed any rumours of a rift between the pair, saying the accusation that they are not ”aligned” is a ”massive overstatement.”
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The 34-year-old said: "When you're in a position of leadership along with someone else, if anyone thinks that you're always going to agree on everything, then it's just impossible.
"To me, that just isn't a healthy environment for sport, in particular, where everyone just agrees with everyone or says yes to the person up there.
"You need debate. You need, not arguments, but you need discussions. Then you end up getting to the place you both want to end up getting to.
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"As similar as me and Brendon are, we're also dissimilar in other areas as well. But the thing we both want is to be as successful as we possibly can.
"How we get to being successful might be the same here, but slightly differs here - but we will always be able to end up in the same place by having these discussions.
"We agree 95% of the time on things, but those 5% things that we might have different views on, we talk about it between each other and then we end up getting to the place where we both feel that we want to get to. Agreeing on every single thing - that's just impossible."
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