Ben Stokes was surprised after Brendon McCullum was appointed as England’s coach in the white-ball formats as well. Back in 2022, the former New Zealand captain took charge of the Test team after Chris Silverwood stepped down. After Matthew Mott resigned after England’s campaign in the T20 World Cup 2024, McCullum took charge of the ODI and T20I teams as well.

While McCullum and Stokes have helped England Cricket build a strong team in Test cricket. Stokes also said that the white-ball team should learn a lot under the coaching of Brendon McCullum.

“I was very surprised by the news. First and foremost, I think it’s an unbelievable move for English cricket to go back to having a coach in charge of all the teams. You look at what Baz has achieved with the Test side, it’s been amazing,” Stokes told ESPNcricinfo. “I’m really excited for the white-ball team to have the opportunity to be able to work with Baz, listen to him speak, his opinions. How his outlook on life reflects cricket, if that makes sense,” Stokes said.

However, Ben Stokes said that Jos Buttler would ‘really enjoy’ working with McCullum as well. The veteran also shared that youngsters in the English limited-overs team would learn a lot with Brendon McCullum as the head coach.

“I think Jos is going to really, really enjoy having him as his coach to work with. And you look at all the new faces who are coming into that white-ball team now, I couldn’t think of a better person for them to come in and work under at international level for the first time,” Ben Stokes concluded.

England are currently leading their Test series against Sri Lanka 2-0 as well. The third and final Test at the Kennington Oval in London will start on September 6 as well.