Veteran England cricket team fast bowler James Anderson recently explained how new Test coach Brendon McCullum has already made a positive impact on the mindset of the squad’s members. McCullum recently took over as the coach of the England Test cricket team.
Under him, England got off to a winning start in their home summer as they registered a win against the New Zealand cricket team in their ICC World Test Championship series opener.
England got off to an excellent start as they bowled the Blackcaps out for just 132 runs in their first innings. However, the England team could take only a nine-run lead in the first innings. The Kiwis fought back with a stellar partnership between Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell.
Mitchell completed his ton, while Blundell fell just four runs short. However, many fans thought that the New Zealand cricket team had the upper hand when they were 236/4 at the end of Day 2 in the second innings. It looked like they would set a target of around 300 runs for the home side.
But England made a spectacular comeback and bowled the Kiwis out for just 285 runs in the second innings. Joe Root’s century helped England win the game by five wickets.
James Anderson picked up the big wicket of Tom Blundell
James Anderson made his return to the England Test playing XI in the first match of the WTC series against the New Zealand cricket team. He took a four-wicket haul in the first innings and took Blundell’s wicket in the second innings. Sharing how McCullum made an impact on the players’ mindset, Anderson said on BBC’s Tailenders Podcast:
“We could have been ‘oh they’ve got a big partnership going, two guys nearing a hundred’ and you could feel down about it. But when the coach sends you home by saying he’s excited, you go to bed in a completely different mindset.”
