England head coach Brendon McCullum has acknowledged that his team need to fill some gaps before the Ashes 2025-26 to be played in Australia from November 21 to January 8. The English team will be chasing
the Test series win Down Under eagerly as they won their last red-ball competition in Australia in 2010-11 under Andrew Strauss’ captaincy. Following that success, England played three Test series in Australia but looked miserable in all of them. England’s previous Test win in Aussie conditions came in January 2011, when they beat the hosts by an innings and 83 runs. Alastair Cook shone with his bat and made a crucial contribution of 189 runs.
With these facts, eyes will be set on England for the upcoming Aussie challenge. Following the defeat in the final Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025, former England players are criticising their side for missing the chance to win a Test series against Indiaafter 2018. McCullum has also admitted that there are some areas to fix before the Ashes and for that, he will analyse his team’s performance in the upcoming weeks. "We'll let this one sit, we'll digest it. We'll be able to pick out what has gone well then start to work out how we can keep improving so, when we do arrive out in Australia, we give ourselves a huge chance. We're in the middle now, halfway through what we knew was going to be an unbelievable 12 months of Test cricket. We know we've got some room to improve,” said McCullum as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Brendon McCullum praised Mohammed Siraj’s effort
Brendon McCullum also commended Mohammed Siraj’s courageous bowling effort in the final moments of The Oval Test. "The way India were late on in this Test, Mohammed Siraj has the absolute heart of a lion to bowl 90mph in his 30th over of his fifth Test match. It's quite an incredible effort. As much as we got ourselves in a winning position this Test match, I feel like they deserved to win. They played better cricket," added McCullum.
England players will now be seen in The Hundred 2025, which will be held from August 5 to 31. Following that, the English team will host South Africa for the six-match white-ball series at home.
