There was a distinct New Zealand flavor to the new era for English cricket that was launched at Lord’s on Monday.
Brendon McCullum took his first training session as coach of the men’s test team that will be captained for the first time by Ben Stokes in England’s opening match of its international summer, starting Thursday.
The opponent will be New Zealand, where Stokes was born — he moved to England at the age of 12 — and for whom McCullum is a cricket great.
“It’s already strange,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said of seeing McCullum take charge of England.
“I walked across the ground before, him and I walked together. I think he went into the right dressing room.”
As well as overseeing training from afar, McCullum was seen taking an active role by directing balls to a slip cordon for catching practice.
Having only retired in 2019, he is coaching a test team for the first time and has already had a major influence on English cricket. The attack-minded New Zealand team that McCullum captained provided the template for England’s World Cup-winning team of 2019.