McCullum combined Test and white-ball roles in 2024, two years after he first took charge of the Test team. When he arrived as Test coach in 2022, he initially embarked on a run of excellent results achieved with impressive cricket.

The partnership with Stokes (a la Bazball) revitalized an England team that had won only one of its previous 17 Tests.

With swashbuckling batting, England scored famous victories over New Zealand at Trent Bridge, India at Edgbaston and Pakistan at Rawalpindi, the latter being the start of a series won 3-0. Overall, England won 10 of their first 11 Tests under McCullum and Stokes.

However, since that initial period of success, England have lost 19 and won 17 of 38 Tests, starting with a stunning one-run loss to New Zealand in Wellington, sustained after England imposed a follow-on.

England went down 2-0 at home in the 2023 Ashes but turned around to draw 2-2, and perhaps they would have won the tournament if rain had not nearly washed away the final two days of the fourth Test at Old Trafford.

The tour of India in 2024 began with another famous victory in Hyderabad, only to fall to a 4-1 series defeat.

Returning home from India, Stokes, McCullum and Key set their sights on the 2025-26 Ashes tour, including ending the career of England’s all-time leading wicket-taker James Anderson.

England formed a plan to attack Australia quickly and organized possibly their most hostile attack in over 50 years for the trip to Australia.

But the tour collapsed amid a turmoil of inadequate planning, poor performances and accusations of a drinking culture.

After playing just one warm-up match against the Lions, England were in a strong position in the first Test in Perth: 105 runs ahead with nine wickets in hand shortly after lunch on the second day. In a stunning implosion, England was defeated before the day was out and never recovered.

Although England won the fourth Test in Melbourne, their first victory in Australia for 14 years, their performances elsewhere were abject: a threadbare team was unprepared for the demands of such a tour.

Off the field, England’s reputation was affected by public drinking in Noosa, when opener Ben Duckett was filmed, apparently drunk.

Worse was to come at the end of the Ashes tour, when it emerged that Brook had been punched by a nightclub bouncer in Wellington on the eve of a one-day international on the tour of New Zealand that preceded the trip to Australia.

After being backed to remain in their positions, McCullum and Stokes attempted to distance themselves from rumors of a breakup that had allegedly developed in Australia.

England increased its backroom staff to assist in preparation and implemented a midnight curfew in a bid to avoid further controversy.

There was optimism when they won the first test of the summer at home against New Zealand at Lord’s. However, the nightclub incident that unfolded as Stokes was celebrating that victory set off the chain of events that has left England in crisis.

McCullum’s contract with the white-ball team runs until the end of the 50-over World Cup in southern Africa next fall.

Now, England must find a Test team head coach who can work alongside McCullum’s high character and relaxed approach.