Brendan McCullum's warning to Australia after England whitewash
England's new coach Brendan McCullum has sent a warning to the Aussies and the rest of the cricket world after Ben Stokes' men won the series against New Zealand 3-0.
McCullum took over as coach after a tumultuous Ashes Series in Australia and start to the year, which saw England falter 4-0.
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But under the new guidance of captain Ben Stokes, England have played some incredibly attractive attacking cricket and produced victories in Lord's, Trent Bridge and Headingley.
Former captain Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow have re-discovered their form after the tour of Australia to help lead the batting.
Even more striking was the way they went about their business, scoring their runs at a staggering rate of 4.54 and chasing down supposedly challenging totals of 277, 299 and 296 with apparent ease.
And McCullum made it clear that the early signs show rivals should be worried about England's new brand of cricket.
"The world Test champions were a formidable opponent to overcome and the alarm bells have probably gone off somewhat around world cricket as to how this team is going to play," he said.
"When Ben's out there captaining he's constantly making plays, which I think is great because it means at least we're in control, regardless of what the scoreboard says.
"Then when he's batting, he's pushing the envelope as well, which is sending a message to not just our dressing room but to other dressing rooms around the world that this is how we're going to play.
"Obviously you want to be the No.1 team in the world and you want to achieve the ultimate success, which is being world Test champions, winning the Ashes and beating the top teams consistently.
"That's the end goal, but what we need to do first of all is enjoy what we've been able to achieve over the last three weeks and understand what we've achieved as well. Cherish it."
New coach praises Ben Stokes' captaincy
Stokes recently took over captaincy from Root, which has liberated the batter to focus on run scoring.
The move has certainly worked with McCullum praising Stokes' attacking mindset.
While many expected McCullum to bring in that aggressive mindset - as one of the most devastating short-form players in history - the new coach said Stokes had taken on the roll easily.
"I'm aggressive but Ben's got me covered, which is saying something," he said with a grin.
"I hope we take it too far because then we'll know exactly where that line is. Until you do that, you're not really sure."
with AAP
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