Stokes open to working "slightly differently" with McCullum
England Test captain Ben Stokes has backed his partnership with head coach Brendon McCullum, saying the two remain closely aligned despite minor differences that came into focus during the 4-1 Ashes drubbing in Australia.
The allrounder indicated that while he may have to work with McCullum in a "slightly different way", the core objective remains unchanged.
Both Stokes and McCullum held onto their roles after a review by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), and will continue as a captain-coach pair heading into the next cycle, with a home Ashes slated for 2027.
"I'm very confident in mine and Brendon's ability to be able to work together, because we've done it for such a long period of time now. But work together in a slightly different way," Stokes told ECB in his first interview since the Ashes.
"The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be. That's always been the thing since we started.
"It might just look a little bit different now to how that operates, on the back of four years working together. We still want to win everything, and we still want to give the guys the best chance that they possibly can of being as good as they can be."
Stokes dismissed suggestions of a rift, calling the idea of misalignment a "massive overstatement" in the larger scheme of things.
"As similar as me and Brendon are, we're also dissimilar in other areas as well," Stokes said. "But the thing we both want is to be as successful as we possibly can. How we get to being successful might be the same here, but slightly differs there, but we will always end up in the same place by having these discussions.
"We agree 95% of the time on things, but those 5% things that we might have different views on, we talk about it between each other and then we end up getting to the place where we want to get to. Agreeing on every single thing, that's just impossible. Saying we weren't aligned, I think, is a massive overstatement."
Stokes had publicly backed McCullum to continue as head coach after the Ashes setback, a show of support that proved significant in the New Zealander retaining his role. The England captain is contracted through the next Ashes, while McCullum is set to remain in charge until the subsequent World Cup.
"With what me and Brendon were able to achieve with the group over a four-year period, I just couldn't imagine doing what we were trying to do with anyone else," said Stokes.
"We're both very proud men in what we do. We put a lot of our heart and soul into this job. Brendon certainly has for the four years he's done it so far, and hopefully we'll still be together at the end of 2027, winning what we want to win."
