Stokes and McCullum under pressure as England struggle to block out speculation

By Andy Bull at The Kia Oval • June 18, 2026 • Sport

Behind those shades at the second Test it is impossible to tell what the England head coach is thinking in the enforced absence of his captain

“Is it you? Oh yeahhhha …” They had Toots and the Maytals on at the jerk stall round the back of the JM Finn stand on Wednesday morning, the grillman had their Sweet and Dandy classic Pressure Drop pumping out of the sound system while the England fans queued in the drizzle to get through the Alec Stewart Gate. “I say a pressure drop, oh pressure, oh yeahhhh, pressure drop, a drop on you.” The rainclouds gave way after an hour. By one o’clock you needed sunglasses. Not that Brendon McCullum ever needs a reason. “I say, and when it drops, oh, youe gonna feel it, know what you were doing wrong.” Is McCullum feeling it? It’s increasingly hard to say what’s going on behind those shades. The man’s the Anna Wintour of the wicket. That eyewear makes it impossible to know what he’s thinking. It’s been nine days since Ben Stokes was caught breaking the England team curfew at a nightclub on the Kings Road, and still no one really knows what’s going on, or exactly what’s gone wrong. The Cricket Regulator is investigating, but it is slower than molasses in January. There doesn’t seem to be a good reason why the ECB’s own report is dragging on so long. The one clear point is that neither McCullum, nor his boss, Rob Key, wanted to offer Stokes their backing as captain. McCullum has also said, repeatedly, that he’s worried about Stokes. Which would make more sense if Stokes seemed to be worried about himself. He is, after all, a man who is ready to talk about his own mental health, which once caused him to take a five-month break from the game. Those in the know say that he’s fine, and eager to lead England at Trent Bridge next week. Certainly he’s been training with Durham and is ready to play for them in the County Championship this weekend. His county coach Ryan Campbell says he’s been in “good spirits” and is “working hard”. In the absence of any ready explanations, there is speculation. There’s talk that this situation has degenerated into a power struggle between the three of them, whispers that Stokes is angry about the way this has been handled. This is, after all, the same coaching regime that allowed Harry Brook to play the day after he was punched by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington. On Test Match Special, Michael Vaughan even went so far as to say he was worried the relationship between England’s coach and captain might be irretrievably broken. So what can we see out there through the binoculars? McCullum and Key have put together a very odd XI for this second Test, the most inexperienced team England have put on the field since 2009, and the first in twice as long that has included five players who each have one cap or fewer. The interim skipper, Joe Root, who says he is speaking to Stokes regularly, has played more Tests, and scored more runs, than the other 10 men put together, and taken more wickets than any of the four bowlers, who make up the rawest attack England have had in 23 years. The Oval is just about the happiest batting surface in the country right now. Surrey have had six draws in the last eight championship matches here, and barely a hundred wickets have gone down here in first-class cricket this season. England have come equipped with four bowlers, two rookies and a third who hasn’t bowled anything longer than a four-over spell in the past six months. They’ve no spinner, and a specialist batsman who was slated to come in at No 7. Of course Surrey don’t play a spinner either, but they always use five bowlers, and have a sixth, Dan Lawrence, who gets through a hell of a lot of overs. England could have picked Lawrence. He just scored 218 and 101 in one of those high-scoring draws. England could have picked Rehan Ahmed, who scored five hundreds in the championship last year. McCullum’s already without all eight of England’s leading wicket-takers since he took charge of the team four years ago, but only one of them, Brydon Carse, is injured. Another, Stuart Broad, has retired. Two, Stokes and Gus Atkinson, have been suspended, while the other four – James Anderson, Chris Woakes, Jack Leach and Shoaib Bashir – have all been dropped along the way. He’s always liked a gamble, but given the options available to him, his decisions here feel like they’re made against long odds for high stakes. It is the sort of team you pick either in the first flourish of a new era, or the last gasps of an old one. So far, England are getting away with it. Sonny Baker, who runs in like he’s just snagged his pants on the boundary hoarding, with a stutter then a skip and a surge as the elastic snaps, picked up two wickets, Matthew Fisher, Josh Tongue and Jofra Archer got one each, Jacob Bethell fluked another couple. The innings, and the match, are in the balance, and if the situation between McCullum, Key and Stokes really has grown so acrimonious, one or two of their England careers might be teetering on the edge right there with it.

Source: The Guardian