Ben Stokes hurting after series loss, my job is to support him: Brendon McCullum

After going 1-0 up by beating Pakistan by an innings after conceding over 550 runs in the first Test in Multan, England lost the series 2-1 after the hosts made the best use of their two spinners, Sajid Khan and Noman Ali. England skipper Ben Stokes, who was recovering from an injury at the start of the tour, missed the first game but was fit enough to play the next two Tests. However, his contribution was bare minimum, as he managed just 53 runs from four innings and bowled 10 wicketless overs across the series. 

England head coach Brendon McCullum says Stokes is hurting from the loss, and he will look to give him as much support as possible going into their next assignment against New Zealand. "That injury was quite a significant injury," McCullum said. 

"He had to work incredibly hard to get back. As the driven athlete he is, he's all in when he does something. He had to put in a lot of graft there, and subconsciously, it can… not cloud things, but maybe you're not quite as screwed down as you can be in terms of decision-making.

"That's natural, as long as you learn from that and make sure next time you're presented with that situation, you're able to block out the noise and stay crystal clear in the moment. He's disappointed, but he's our skipper, and we know he's a tough bugger. He'll make sure he'll come back and it's our job to make sure we wrap our arms around him and help him along the way."

Since Stokes took over as captain, they have lost just two series, and both have been in the subcontinent. They lost 4-1 to India earlier this year, and following this loss to Pakistan, they have a short time before their next series against the Blackcaps, which will get underway on November 28 in Christchurch.

McCullum says that it is his job to ensure that the message to the group remains consistent.  "We all know how competitive and driven the skipper is," he said. 

"He'll be hurting right now with how the series has unfolded. It's my job to make sure I'm there to support him and make sure we still remain on-task with what we are trying to do as a collective and our messaging to the group about how we want to keep playing cricket moving forward.

"Sometimes as leaders, if you do suffer a little bit of disappointment yourself, it can be very easy to allow that to permeate through in your messaging to the group. But since Stokesy came on board as captain, he's been very clear and precise about how he wants his team to play.

"What's really important is to never flinch with that and stay true to it, even if you're struggling yourself. You've still got to keep using the same messaging. He'll be better for the run, no doubt: a couple of weeks off, freshen up and back to conditions which are a bit more similar to back in England. It's another opportunity for us."

England will return to Asia next only in 2027 for a series against Bangladesh. They have lost six of their last eight Tests in the subcontinent, but McCullum believes his side could have done a little better against Pakistan. "If we're being honest with ourselves, we've had opportunities to put up a better record than that, so it's disappointing," McCullum said. 

"You don't get too many opportunities to nail down big series in the subcontinent. We've had those chances, and we weren't quite good enough. "I know we don't come back to the subcontinent for a couple of years, but there's still times even in other countries when we're presented with spinning wickets, and we've got to make sure our approach is a little bit more screwed down, a little bit better than it is. That will be some of the conversations we have.

"It's a matter of trying to get that environment to a place where it's confident, it's clear and the messaging is very simple. With failure, sometimes it brings about a little bit of deeper thought and that's something we'll have to do over the next little while.

"We've also got a very quick turnaround for the New Zealand series, but we have to make sure we've learned some lessons from this and be better when we get the chance. That's the nice thing: we do get an opportunity, and it would be nice to bounce back in New Zealand."

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