Why Brook captaincy call could define Key and McCullum legacies
AUS
IND
Australia chose to bat.
SL-W
NZ-W
No result
GG-W
UPW-W
GG Women won by 81 runs
ENG-M
SA-M
SA Masters won by 7 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)
England need a new white-ball leader but the risks of over-burdening crucial player are rife
All eyes will be on Harry Brook as England decide on their next white-ball captain • AFP via Getty Images
It did not take Jos Buttler long to recognise that his position as England’s white-ball captain was untenable. He spoke like a man who knew his time was up after England’s defeat to Afghanistan in Lahore on Wednesday, and within 24 hours had told Brendon McCullum that it was over. Saturday’s thrashing by South Africa only emphasised that he had made the right call.
It leaves McCullum – and Rob Key – facing a decision that will go a long way towards determining England’s success over the next two-and-a-half years. Unlike when Eoin Morgan resigned, when Buttler had spent seven years as his deputy, there is not an obvious successor as white-ball captain – at least, not one who can be appointed without serious thought.
Harry Brook is the clear favourite to step up but has only recently become vice-captain and, unlike Morgan or Buttler before him, is an all-format regular. To play in all three formats for England while captaining in two would be unprecedented in the modern era, juggling two months at the IPL and one month in the Hundred alongside.
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Brook impressed when he stood in during England’s ODIs against Australia last September, and has other leadership experience with England Under-19s, Yorkshire and Northern Superchargers. At 26, with no secondary skill to worry about in the field and a clear injury history, it could be the making of him. If anyone can cope with the workload, it is Brook.
But that does not make this a straightforward decision. Brook averages nearly 60 in Test cricket but is yet to nail international white-ball cricket: he has now been to four ICC events and his only match-winning innings was against Namibia. He has struggled in 2025, with 188 runs in 11 hits – and a solitary half-century – since England arrived in India at the start of the year.
Most pertinently, Brook’s schedule is already packed. England’s next ODI series starts four days after the IPL final; if Brook’s Delhi Capitals are knocked out early, he will likely play a Test against Zimbabwe instead. McCullum insists England’s fixture list is easing, but they still have 11 Tests, 27 bilateral white-ball fixtures and a T20 World Cup scheduled in the next 12 months.
The risks, therefore, are two-fold and interdependent. One, Brook will not have the same single-minded focus on white-ball cricket as Morgan and Buttler, risking selling England’s ODI and T20I teams short. And two, there is a risk that Brook will spread himself so thin that his batting will suffer, to the detriment of England’s Test team.
Who will England’s next white-ball captain be?
Those drawbacks were already evident last summer, when Brook was the only player to play throughout the T20 World Cup and England’s home Tests and finished that stretch looking uncertain of his batting tempo after some mixed messaging. It culminated in his leanest full Test series yet, averaging 30 against Sri Lanka as their seamers bored him out at The Oval.
McCullum’s appointment as all-format coach relied on the premise that England’s fixture list is becoming more manageable after years of post-Covid backlog, and should ensure consistent messaging for multi-format players. But surely England will not want Brook to be playing T20Is in New Zealand in the build-up to next winter’s Ashes: if he is appointed, he will need a deputy.
Alternatives are thin on the ground. Liam Livingstone and Phil Salt, who have also deputised in Buttler’s absence, have been in even worse form than Brook this year. Like Brook, Ben Duckett is an all-format regular. Joe Root is not involved in the T20I set-up. Sam Curran is yet to be picked for a Brendon McCullum team. Sam Billings and James Vince have long been discarded.
McCullum ruled nothing out on Saturday. He was open-minded about the prospect of appointing separate 50-over and T20 captains – “If it’s the same person, then great; if it’s two different people, then great too” – or even bringing in a leader from outside the current squad. “I’ll get home in the next couple of days and start having conversations with Rob Key and the guys at the ECB about who is the right person for us to put in that position.”
What went wrong for Buttler’s England?
Perhaps the most important conversation of all will be with Brook. England play more Tests than anyone else, and almost as much limited-overs cricket: in the last decade, at least one format has had to give way for each of their permanent captains. Before McCullum and Key decide Brook is their man, they must ensure he feels ready to take on an unprecedented challenge.
Key will know that he has taken his eye off the ball with England’s white-ball teams. He backed Buttler to continue after last year’s T20 World Cup and extended McCullum’s contract to cover all formats; now, Buttler has resigned and McCullum has overseen ten losses in 11 games. If another appointment goes wrong, it will be Key himself whose position is under the most scrutiny.
He must also bear much of the responsibility for the predictable make-up of England’s bowling attack, which conceded 57.46 runs per wicket and went for 6.8 runs per over at the Champions Trophy. Supported by McCullum, Key has pushed for a stock of all-format, high-pace seam bowlers, but the move backfired: Brydon Carse and Mark Wood both leaked runs, then went down injured.
Both McCullum and Key were riding high two years ago, fuelled by England’s daring cricket and strong results in the early days of the Bazball era and – in Key’s case – their 2022 T20 World Cup triumph. But their stock has fallen since, with significant responsibility for England’s mid-table finish in the World Test Championship table and their disastrous white-ball run this year.
It leaves the pair facing a huge judgement call when it comes to Brook. As England’s best young batter, Brook’s output will go a long way towards dictating their success in both next winter’s Ashes and the T20 World Cup that follows straight after – two series on which Key and McCullum know that their legacies depend.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
‘Karachi a familiar low – England’s rebuild starts here’
Champions Trophy highlights: South Africa v England
If the defeats in India were alarming, and losses to Australia and Afghanistan in Lahore dispiriting, the thrashing by South Africa in Karachi was the moment England’s winter plunged to the depths.
Nasser Hussain’s side famously won a Test here in 2000 in the dark. The winning runs were hit after the sun had set and the locals had broken their Ramadan fast.
At one point on Saturday, there were fears the floodlights would not be needed.
“As a whole group, not just batters, we’re not getting the results and that does take away your confidence,” captain Jos Buttler said.
“It’s time for everyone to get away, get a change of scenery and work hard wherever cricket takes you next.”
Buttler knows this feeling because the seven-wicket defeat by South Africa was English white-ball cricket going full circle.
Back in 2015, he was part of the side also dismissed cheaply before their opponents cantered home – New Zealand the victors on that occasion in Wellington.
That day England’s players sat in silence in a shell-shocked dressing room as the baying crowd shook the foundations of the stadium above them.
This was a Champions Trophy dead rubber rather than a live World Cup match and there were no such problems with the crowd.
Still, it must be the spark of a rebuild, like the Cake Tin defeat was to Eoin Morgan.
This has to be England’s latest visit to rock bottom.
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The quirk is that England’s destroyer 10 years ago will be the one to plot the path ahead to ultimately regain the world titles lost.
“These guys are too hard on themselves,” said their opponent turned coach Brendon McCullum.
“They’ve got immense talent, they are desperate to want to perform. That’s actually stymying the ability of us to get the performance we want. They care too much.”
Expect hard work but no change in England’s rhetoric.
And while there is some merit in McCullum words – relaxing his players and removing the fear of failure is what has helped him turn around the fortunes of the Test side alongside Ben Stokes – it was not the reason Phil Salt and Jamie Smith gave away their wickets or Liam Livingstone looked a novice when faced with spinner Keshav Maharaj.
Attacking shots are causing England’s downfall, not tentative prods. There is more at play here – muddled minds aplenty.
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McCullum finds himself in a tricky spot.
Morgan’s rebuild was remarkable, it progressed all the way to Lord’s in 2019, but it began at a distinct path, with England playing dull, dated cricket.
The requirements were clear – pick younger, more ambitious players available in county cricket but not selected. The present-day route is far less obvious.
Initially, McCullum must decide if these are good players underperforming.
Debate can be had over Liam Dawson, who should have been in Pakistan as an all-rounder and second spin option, but there are few other glaring omissions.
Would the 35-year-old left-arm spinner have made this side semi-finalists? You are always a better player when away from the spotlight.
Livingstone looks to be fighting for his ODI future and Salt is under pressure after a tournament in which he has averaged 10, but the rest of the top seven – Ben Duckett, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler and, to a lesser extent given his poor showing here, Smith – still looks a fearsome line-up on paper.
In contrast, the bowling needs work and McCullum hinted at regrets over the limited, pace-heavy approach employed in Pakistan.
“Obviously, our gameplan was to try and bring fast bowling over here, try to stock our batting and give ourselves that sort of conviction and that method,” McCullum said.
“We may not have got it totally right this time but you’ve got to have conviction in something.”
His side’s new-ball economy rate is currently the most expensive in the world, their powerplay threat only better than Zimbabwe, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates and their middle-over record in Pakistan their worst at a major tournament.
It leaves plenty of room for improvement.
But with Jofra Archer on a three-year contract and Mark Wood lauded wholesale change does not look likely.
Hampshire quick Sonny Baker – the 21-year-old who impressed for the Lions this winter – is one on the radar, while there is still hope Josh Hull could be the left-armer England so desperately require, but otherwise England will rebuild with the players seen here, meaning other gains will have to be made.
It is three months and 23 days since England lined up with a top seven of Salt, Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Bethell, Livingstone, Sam Curran and Dan Mousely. Greater consistency in selection would be a good place to start.
That will be aided by the fact McCullum is now in charge of both red and white-ball teams, meaning there is no longer a tussle between two coaches with two different priorities.
Difficulties will still appear with the New Zealander keen to promote multi-format regulars rather than white-ball specialists, which will leave a winter featuring an Ashes series flanked by white-ball trips to New Zealand and Sri Lanka to be balanced with great care.
McCullum is now England’s man for all seasons, who has sparked a rebuild twice before – first in Wellington and then with the Test side.
His third act may be his most difficult.
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