‘What I meant was five intense training sessions: McCullum on his ‘over-prepared’ remark on Gabba loss

Adelaide, Dec 14 (LatestNewsX) England head coach Brendon McCullum clarified his “over-prepared” remark following the team’s defeat in the Gabba Test, saying he was referring to the five intense training sessions the side undertook.

After a thumping eight-wicket defeat in the day-night Test at the Gabba, McCullum had said, “Leading into this Test match I actually felt like we overprepared to be honest.”

England were heavily criticised for their preparation ahead of the third Test after choosing not to let their Test players take part in a pink-ball practice match before the second Test in Brisbane, even after suffering a defeat in the Ashes opener at Perth on just the second day of the match.

“What I meant by us being over-prepared is we had five intense training sessions, where in my opinion, we left ourselves a fraction short in terms of our energy and ability to play what was in front of us,” McCullum told the media here on Sunday.

“On that wicket, it required quite a different game to what you train in the nets. You have to think on your feet, you have to be able to manoeuvre your game. If you over-prepare or over-train based on how many balls you hit on a true surface, it can leave you a little over-prepared in that moment,” he added.

McCullum also spoke about the heavy media attention the team has faced throughout their time in Australia. Just a day after a member of England’s security staff was involved in an altercation with a cameraman from the media at Brisbane airport, the head coach commended his players for handling the pressure and scrutiny well so far in their tour down under.

“I didn’t see it (the cameraman clash), but obviously it wasn’t ideal. Hopefully it’s been dealt with, and everyone’s able to move on. We know that coming to Australia, there’s a lot of eyeballs and a lot of intense scrutiny on everything you do, and I feel like we’ve managed ourselves pretty well throughout this tour,” he stated.

Experts and Australian media were critical of the English players for visiting the beach town of Noosa on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast after their second consecutive defeat in the series.

Questioned about the same, McCullum mentioned that the time off helped them ‘recalibrate’ a bit as he said, “Noosa was excellent for us; it was planned a year ago and it was quite an important period where we could … recalibrate a little bit.”

vi/bc