‘We’re aligned on winning, even if we work differently’ – Ben Stokes on partnership with Brendon McCullum

Ben Stokes has backed his partnership with England head coach Brendon McCullum, stating that the two remain closely aligned despite minor differences that surfaced during England’s 4-1 defeat in the The Ashes in Australia.

Stokes acknowledged that while he may need to work with McCullum in a slightly different way moving forward, their core objective for the team remains the same. Both Stokes and McCullum retained their roles following a review conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and will continue as England’s captain-coach duo heading into the next cycle, with a home Ashes series scheduled for 2027.

“I’m very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together, because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now. But work together in a slightly different way,” Stokes told ECB as quoted by Cricbuzz.

“The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be. That’s always been the thing since we started. It might just look a little bit different now to how that operates, on the back of four years working together. We still want to win everything, and we still want to give the guys the best chance that they possibly can of being as good as they can be,” he added.

Stokes dismissed suggestions of a rift with the head coach, describing the idea of any misalignment as a massive overstatement in the larger scheme of things. He emphasised that it is unrealistic to expect complete agreement on every aspect, adding that occasional differences in opinion do not mean they are not aligned in their overall vision for the team.

“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 there, but we will always end up in the same place by having these discussions,” said Stokes.

“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 want to get to. Agreeing on every single thing, that’s just impossible. Saying we weren’t aligned, I think, is a massive overstatement,” he added.

The all-rounder had thrown his support behind McCullum to continue as head coach following the The Ashes setback, a backing that proved crucial in McCullum retaining his role The England captain is contracted through the next Ashes cycle, while McCullum is set to remain in charge until the 2027 World Cup.

“With what me and Brendon were able to achieve with the group over a four-year period, I just couldn’t imagine doing what we were trying to do with anyone else. 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,” Stokes concluded.

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