Brendon McCullum says England are not the 'finished product', talks about succeeding in overseas conditions

According to the recently appointed head coach Brendon McCullum, the England men's Test team is still far from being a "finished product". The former Kiwi skipper, in an interview, stated that his main aim with the side is to make winning a habit across all conditions in the longest format. 

England are currently ranked no.4 in the ICC men's Test team rankings.

Under McCullum's coaching, England have pulled off stunning three-in-three victories against New Zealand and created a record for the highest ever run chase in English cricketing history by defeating India in the rescheduled fifth Test at Edgbaston a few days ago. 

The most impressive part being the four consecutive successful run chases of 250-plus targets in the fourth innings and how England have approached those innings. 

Since McCullum's appointment, the England Test team has been scoring at a rate of 4.6 runs per over this summer, making a conscious effort to put New Zealand and India's bowlers under sustained pressure.

The phrase 'Bazball' has been echoing in the cricket world for the past few weeks thanks to the attacking style of play that England have adopted under McCullum's tutelage. 

However, the 40-year-old says it has only been a month that this approach adopted by the side has started producing results, and a lot more needs to be done to turn England into an all-conquering unit in all conditions. 

"We're not a finished product first and foremost," McCullum told SENZ Breakfast on Tuesday.

 "We're a month into it, and we've had some great results, and we've seen the cricketing world put them on notice a little bit, but we need to ensure that this becomes a norm for us," added the New Zealander.

McCullum, who has played county cricket for Sussex, Glamorgan, Warwickshire and Middlesex in the past, believes that the important thing is to translate this run of form to overseas conditions. He thinks this will be one of the toughest challenges for the Ben Stokes-led side.    

"That this style of play and what we're trying to achieve is completely authentic to us in any given situation, and that will be the real challenge. Obviously, conditions around the world will mean that we'll have to be relatively adaptable as well but look, I think that's one of the beauties of this group," McCullum added.

"I think there were times throughout the two series (vs New Zealand and India) that we've played where we've had to absorb pressure as well. Much has been made of the destruction that we were able to operate with the ball in hand, particularly and our hunt for wickets with the ball, but there's times where we had to absorb pressure.

"When that was needed, the guys really did it, which was really satisfying too. It's early days but it's certainly a nice changing room to be around; a wonderful group of guys and clearly an immense amount of talent and ability within the dressing room and really well led by the skipper in Ben Stokes too."

England will look forward to the upcoming home series against South Africa, set to begin on August 17.