McCullum on his future as head coach: "It's not really up to me"

It's taken just 11 days of cricket for England to lose another Ashes Down Under. England's resistance at Adelaide was sterner, even taking the game to a fifth day, but it was far from enough. Naturally, their head coach Brendon McCullum has been facing the heat.

Asked whether he'd stay on as England's head coach, McCullum seemed to suggest that he would love to. "I don't know. It's not really up to me, is it? I will just keep trying to do the job, try to learn the lessons that I haven't quite got right here and make adjustments. Those questions are for someone else, not for me. It's a pretty good gig. It's good fun. You travel the world with the lads and try to play some exciting cricket and try to achieve some things," he said.

England's approach at Adelaide was markedly different, with them playing more traditionally and deviating from the perceivedly stubborn Bazball approach. "The style has never been about the scoring rates," McCullum offered. "We have never said we are going to try to score at 5.5-6 an over. It's about allowing us to get in the head space where we are clear, transparent and immersed in the situation and the moment so we can identify risk, where the game is at and what is required.

"For me, it's a matter of trying to just get the very best out of the people and try to achieve what you can with them. Those other decisions are up to other people. I think we've made some progress from when I took over to where we are."

Asked whether his players have enjoyed the approach, "I hope so. You'll have to ask them. For the last few years, we've had a team which has understood how we're going about this style and we put this team together based on the skill level and the talent. That's not going to change during the time that I'm still in the job," he said.

"I will always have the back of my players, always support them and I'll always make sure that I'm protective of them as well in a public forum. That doesn't mean you don't challenge them privately," he added.

The defeat at Adelaide meant that England's Ashes hopes were over but McCullum insisted that they were still going to show up and fight in the two remaining games. "This is going to sting, no doubt. But we know we've got a job to do in Melbourne and in Sydney. If we can salvage something out of the next two Test matches, then that's something.

"We're not the finished article, but we've definitely improved as a cricket team. We've had an identity about us. Now's the time for us in the last two Tests to really show that identity and try to salvage something from it," he concluded.