Brendon McCullum has said that Harry Brook’s “time will come” as Test captain, even as he threw his weight behind the return of Joe Root as England’s red-ball skipper. Brook, the Three Lions’ ODI and T20I leader, was Test vice-captain when Ben Stokes announced his shock retirement, yet was overlooked for captaincy.
“Everyone knows the affection that I have for Harry,” white-ball head coach McCullum told Sky Sports. “He’s a wonderful player and he’s doing a fine job as white-ball leader. I think his time will come in the Test job.”
McCullum added, “I’m looking forward to working with him and hopefully growing and developing him into the leader that he can become. At some stage in the future, he will have a very important role in that capacity. But for now, Joe will do an amazing job.”
The England Cricket Board (ECB) sacked the former New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter as Test coach in July after a string of poor results in the longest format and off-field episodes — the latest one being Stokes’ breach of curfew that led to his suspension for the second Test against New Zealand.
Stephen Fleming has since replaced McCullum as England Test head coach, and the Kiwi voiced his support for his compatriot and “close mate”. “I had a great time in my four years but now it’s going in a different direction, I think Flem (Fleming) will be excellent,” McCullum said.
“He’s a little bit like me, but better – that’s how I would sum him up. He’ll do a great job, and the ECB have done incredibly well to get someone like him to commit to English cricket for the period that he has. It’s an outstanding achievement.”
Fleming, however, will not be available for the Pakistan series and Marcus Trescothick will be the interim coach. The 53-year-old is currently spending time with family, and his first assignment will be the tour of South Africa in December.
“We talk pretty much every day, we’re close mates,” McCullum said of Fleming. “We’ve done a lot together and he’s one of those guys who I trust completely. We both just want what’s best for English cricket. We want to set this up so that English cricket can be successful across all three formats of the game.
“That is going to take some give and take at times, we both understand that, but we will work very closely together and give everyone the best opportunity to get the success that we all want to see.”