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Will a 3-2 Ashes result save McCullum’s job?
SEN • December 29th, 2025 2:12 pm
Will Brendon McCullum keep his job as England coach if they can win another Ashes Test in Sydney?
News Corp’s Robert Craddock is reporting that if England can leave Aussie shores with a 3-2 defeat, then it is ‘extremely likely’ the Kiwi keeps his job, according to ‘well informed English judges’.
While a 3-2 result would be England’s best result in Australia by some margin since the 2010/11 series, SEN Cricket’s Bharat Sundaresan doesn’t think that result will save McCullum.
Given that the series was wrapped up in the first three Tests, taking Australia just 11 days to do the job, Sundaresan thinks that failure has already marked McCullum’s cards.
He spoke to Tom Morris on SEN Cricket’s The New Ball about McCullum’s future, which seemingly hangs in the balance.
Morris: “Looking at England and how they can review this Test match.
“More broadly, Crash Craddock has written this morning saying if England win in Sydney, that Baz McCullum is safe, but if they lose, he’s in real trouble.
“How do you assess that?”
Sundaresan: “I don't see that.
“Even though they won a Test match for the first time in 15 years in Australia, this Ashes series is still being looked at as a colossal failure back there in England.
“I don't even think 3-2 is going to save Brendon McCullum.
“They've lost the Ashes. Going back to a Nick Hoult article after Brisbane, he said if he doesn’t win a ‘live’ Test, that his position is under threat.
“I don't think that'll change now because the last ‘live’ Test was Adelaide and they lost.
“Yes, they might have won a Test match on a pitch, which has caused a lot of debate. They might even win another Test match in Sydney, who knows?
“But I don't think it changes the utter failure that has been this Ashes series.”
Morris: “Our good colleague Cameron Ponsonby wrote for Cricket Et Al. overnight, and I think his last line, and I hope I'm not misquoting him, was they came underprepared and then they underperformed.
“The preparation was the colossal failure before the actual execution.
“That's what set them up for failure for the first two or three Tests and they couldn't come back from it.”
McCullum is currently contracted until the 2027 Ashes series in England.
The fifth and final Test begins in Sydney on January 4. Listen to every ball LIVE on SEN - your home of cricket.
