Will McCullum still feel like the man in control? When he first took charge of the Test team in 2022, he was stunned that the England nutritionist did not allow the players a bacon sandwich.
Keen to empower the players, McCullum saved the bacon butty. Now, he and his men are being told what time they have to be back at their hotel.
Positive results over the coming weeks would lift the mood. England need wins in the three one-dayers against Sri Lanka to boost their ranking in order to seal automatic qualification for that 2027 World Cup.
They are also two-time winners of the T20 World Cup, the next edition of which begins next month. The shortest format is arguably England’s best at the moment. Still, they reached the semi-finals of the last T20 World Cup and it was not enough to save the job of head coach Matthew Mott.
If McCullum is being backed into a corner by changes imposed from above, it can be asked if the ECB top brass are consulting the players.
Test captain Ben Stokes is probably the most powerful man in English cricket and has thrown his support behind McCullum, even if their messages diverged during the Ashes series.
Brook is almost as important, given his presence across formats. No one has played more games for England since Brook made his Test debut in 2022 and it is highly likely he will be the only man to play every match this winter.
The 26-year-old has turned down franchise riches to commit to the national team and remains the most likely candidate to be the next Test captain, despite the Wellington misdemeanour.
On Wednesday, Brook called McCullum the best coach he has played for.
Perhaps therein lies the problem. McCullum is popular with his players partly because of the freedom – on and off the field – he promotes. Now, those freedoms have been identified as a cause of England’s poor results and are being taken away.
A year before McCullum was given the England job, he was in charge of Indian Premier League side Kolkata Knight Riders. Frustrated by what he saw as his batters’ lack of intent, he revealed one of his philosophies.
“A saying that I’ve used throughout my career is that ‘if you can’t change a man, change the man’,” said McCullum.
During his time with England, men McCullum has been unable to change have been changed for other men.
James Anderson could not be changed into a younger man and Jack Leach could not be changed into a tall right-armer. Ben Foakes could not become a tail-marshalling number seven and Ollie Robinson could not keep himself on the park.
Now, McCullum has to answer his own question.
Can Baz change, or must Baz be changed?
