Follow UsSince the team of head coach Brendon McCullum and skipper Ben Stokes have taken charge of the affairs of England's Test cricket, the team have been on a roll. Their aggressive approach has caught the attention worldwide and with the Ashes Tests coming up, they do not seem to be in any mood to back down from it.
England have won 10 of their last 12 Tests with this approach, but McCullum is aware that there is a downside to such an approach and has vowed that his team will not run away if at any point this approach of theirs backfires.
"It's a challenge, but it's an exciting challenge," McCullum said, according to Cricket.com.au.
"The more that's at stake, the more it's important to keep it simple and relaxed, to do what gives you your greatest chance.
"At the first sign of trouble, you can't run away from it. Or at the first sign of all the eyeballs in the world watching you, you can't run away from what's been most successful for you.
"That's when you should be at your clearest, keep things as simple as possible and that will be the message right throughout."
McCullum too has had fierce battles with Australia in the past during his glittering playing career, but suggests that he was only good enough to scrap through against the Australian side, which is not the case with the current England players.
"I'm not as good as these guys are, so you always felt like you were scrapping for something rather than being able to go toe to toe with them [Australia]," McCullum said.
"The ability to go toe-to-toe with a good side is where the magic happens. I think we've got the quality in our team and they've got the quality in their team to be a heavyweight contest so I'm excited about that.
"There's so much excitement about what's coming and there's so much uncertainty for everyone and that's where I think the real magic has the opportunity to come out. So we're just excited about it."
A lot was spoken about England's attacking approach last year, including scoring at 5.5 an over in the Test series in Pakistan, but they have managed to produce the desired results. McCullum feels that the team would get more consistent with time.
"To be fair, there's some stuff we did last year that I didn't really think was achievable but the guys were able to do it," the former Blackcaps skipper said.
"If you are present and clear of mind, you're able to make good decisions because you're not worried about the outcome as such, you're just able to adapt to what's required.
"There will be periods where we'll have to absorb pressure. It may also be that we'll be able to put the handle down a bit more and achieve what we did last summer. We'll just wait and see."
Ahead of the five-match Ashes Test series against Australia, starting June 16, England take on Ireland in a four-day Test, June 1 onwards.