In chess, kung-fu, and the battlefield, the accepted wisdom is all the same. Staying safe wins you nothing. The hand that strikes also blocks. A good offence is the best defence.
Brendon McCullum appears to espouse this philosophy better than most batsmen. For years he championed batting aggression to the point of frustration. Former coaches called for better application, and critics for a more sensible approach, but the aggressive strokes did not wane, despite an average languishing in the mid-30s.
Following the end of his breakthrough batting year, in which his 1164 runs came at a strike rate of better than 72, McCullum has proven the old wisdom can work in reverse too. It was a better-rounded defence that allowed him to unlock his potential as an attacking batsman, he said.
“Right throughout my career I’ve tried to play in an attacking manner. At times I haven’t had the shot selection that I’ve been able to operate with lately. That probably comes off the back of having a lot more trust in my defence as well. If you know that your defence is capable and you’re able to bat for a period of time, then your attacking game can unfold, rather than to just attack because you don’t have any trust in your defence. Not every innings am I going to come out striking at a high rate, but my game plan is slowly getting there.”
McCullum wasn’t slowly going anywhere during his breakneck 195, but he expected Sri Lanka to pose a sterner test for him at the Basin Reserve. He had not prospered against them before the Christchurch Test, having averaged less than 26 against Sri Lanka, with only two fifties in 14 completed innings.
“I’m sure the Sri Lankan plans from the first game to this one have changed a little bit as well. I don’t know what they’ll come up with, but Angelo Mathews is a very astute captain as well, and they’ve got a good support crew there who perform well for them in terms of research. I’m sure they’ve come up with something different and that’s a good challenge to me – to make sure I can adapt.
“I’m sure they will be a stronger team for Rangana Herath’s inclusion as well. I don’t think we’ve played him in these conditions, but we’ve played him away from home and he’s a very, very good bowler. He’s a smart, no-frills kind of cricketer and he’s very accurate and keeps at you. He very rarely bowls a bad ball. It’ll be interesting to see how he bowls in these conditions.”
For his part, Mathews said the key to dismissing McCullum was perseverance. Sri Lanka trialled several strategies against McCullum in Christchurch, including a short-ball plan, but did not stick with any tactic for long as McCullum continued to score quickly.
“You just have to be patient with McCullum I think. The way he came out in the last game was unbelievable. When a guy smashes you all over the park and gets almost a double-hundred, it’s quite hard to set fields. He was not orthodox. You’ve got to wait for his mistakes, which will come. You just have to keep putting it on the right spot and grab the chance when it comes.”
McCullum said that his team did not want to heap pressure on Hamish Rutherford upon his return to the XI this series, nor on James Neesham, who is keeping Corey Anderson out of the side. But he conceded that Rutherford needed a good score, following two short innings in Christchurch, and that there was also improvement needed in Neesham’s bowling. It’s these minor improvements that will help New Zealand lift themselves from their current Test ranking, at seventh.
“You always want to keep fine tuning those rough edges, which do come about in any Test team. I know there are some guys who would love to put in a good performance and really solidify their position in the team. We’re happy with the performance that we put in last year, but we’re certainly not happy with our position in the rankings.
“But the nature of cricket is that you can’t have always 11 guys who are all performing at the same time. We talked a lot about how the team is getting the job done, at length, after the last game, and talked about some of the bits-and-pieces performances from the other guys that complement the matchwinners that we have in the team. If you look at it from a holistic point of view, we’re going pretty good.”