“Firstly, it’s nice to be back,” he said. “An Australia tour is always a great tour. The cricket’s always pretty competitive. We’ll play at some great stadiums, against a good side, and continue to test our methods, towards the one-day World Cup. We know we need to keep getting better, but we’ve been presented with some good opportunities, and this will be one of those the next couple of weeks.
“We want to play a high-octane, robust style of play, which demands fitness elements to it,” he added. “So for us, this is a great opportunity to have a little fitness block in and around the demand of this series.”
“Yeah, it was disappointing,” McCullum said. “Obviously, it was great to play in the tri-series. With the view towards the World Cup, the ability to be able to bounce between games, and different tactics, and different oppositions was good. We obviously didn’t quite achieve what we wanted to, but we played some really good cricket and learned some great lessons. They should hold you in good stead in 12 months.
“We’ve got a pretty inexperienced team. These guys haven’t played a lot of one-day cricket, so any opportunity to get experience and education, and those pressure moments, so that you can start to just understand a little bit better, it’s going to be good.”
Speaking to the BBC Test Match Special podcast, McCullum opted not to dwell on the shortcomings of England’s Ashes campaign 12 months ago, choosing instead to acknowledge that “we missed some opportunities, definitely”.
“I like to focus on what’s coming and I think this is a very different side,” he said. “This is a different form of the game. The Test stuff, I had a great time while I was there, but my focus is very much on trying to make this cricket team the very best team that we can be, and to challenge seriously for trophies.
“I loved the four years that I had with the Test team. It was one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in the game and I’m forever grateful for the chance. But the good thing is, I get the opportunity to try, alongside Brookie [Harry Brook] and some key people, to help shape the one-day side and the T20 side moving forward. And that’s very much where my focus is.
“You can’t really go back on the four years that you’ve had. You’re just grateful for the opportunity that you got. With 12 months to go into a World Cup, it’s a great opportunity to zero in and laser your focus on exactly where you think the areas are that you can get some improvement into these guys. And winning a World Cup would be amazing, but we know we’re going to have to get better between now and then.”
