Reporting note: this article draws on Sky Sports; PGLive provides the summary and editorial framing.
Brendon McCullum says his working relationship with Harry Brook has flourished since he gave up the Test job, describing the captain-coach partnership as one that functions well as England prepare for their second match of the ODI tri-series in Pakistan. McCullum, who handed over the red-ball role in July, told Sky Sports that the change has clarified how the two men work together.
"In a funny way, I think, sort of now, Harry and I, our relationship as the captain and coach over the last 18 months or so has really blossomed, and I think we work fantastically well together," he said. Brook has led England's T20 and ODI sides since Jos Buttler stepped away from the role in April 2025.
McCullum Brook relationship has blossomed
McCullum took charge of the Test side in 2022 and added the white-ball formats in 2025, before stepping back from Test cricket a month after Ben Stokes' international retirement. The split, he suggested, removed an overlap that had complicated the division of responsibility between the two men.
He was direct in his assessment of Brook's development, pointing to the past year as the period in which the Yorkshire batter has grown most visibly into the job. "He's grown immensely as a leader in the last 12 months in particular," McCullum said. "He's obviously a brilliant tactician, but he commands the respect of the dressing room as well."
That endorsement carries weight given the circumstances of Brook's appointment. When Stokes retired, Brook was near the top of a short list of possible Test captains, but holding all three formats was judged too heavy a load, and Joe Root was called upon instead.
Brook's leadership and the Pakistan defeat
The white-ball record under Brook is mixed but trending in one direction. England's T20 side sits top of the global rankings, a position McCullum's side has reached during his tenure as captain. The ODI side, by contrast, opened the tri-series in Rawalpindi with an 87-run defeat by Pakistan.
England were bowled out for 215 chasing 303. Arafat Minhas did the damage with both bat and ball, making 59 from 58 deliveries before taking a career-best 6-40. Brook afterwards lamented the way wickets fell in clusters during the chase, a familiar diagnosis for a batting order that has struggled to absorb pressure in the middle overs.
McCullum's framing of the result is that the one-day side is moving in the right direction despite the setback. The tri-series, staged in the subcontinent, gives his players a run of fixtures in conditions that will resemble those expected at the 2027 World Cup.
Reflecting on the Test tenure
McCullum described his four years in the Test job as a period he remains proud of, while conceding the record was uneven. England won ten of their first 11 matches after he and Stokes took over in 2022, a start that established the aggressive approach that became known as Bazball.
What followed was less settled: 16 wins and 17 defeats, alongside a 4-1 Ashes series in Australia. The baseline he inherited was bleaker still, with England having played 44 Tests between 2019 and 2022 for 15 wins and 22 losses.
"Eventful is a good word, but in a funny old way I think things worked out really well," McCullum said of the era, which also brought off-field headlines, including Brook's involvement in a scuffle with a nightclub bouncer in Wellington last winter. "We obviously left a little bit on the table as well, but I have zero regrets about the time and I'm certainly content with where it all sits now."
World Cup planning and Sri Lanka next
McCullum is reluctant to frame the tri-series as a results-only exercise, though he accepts that winning is the measure by which his side will be judged. His emphasis is on decision-making under pressure and on giving players the clarity to express themselves in tight games.
"The last three series we've played, we've found ourselves in must-win games. We just won all three," he said, arguing that repeated exposure to knockout-style pressure is the most useful preparation for the World Cup in late 2027. "If we're good enough, we give ourselves an opportunity to play in another final."
England's next opportunity comes quickly. They face Sri Lanka in Rawalpindi on Thursday, with coverage on Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event from 8.30am and the first ball at 9am.
The original report was published by skysports.com.
