Skip to content

Brendon McCullum adamant New Zealand can bounce back

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum
Image: New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum: Still more to come

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum believes England may not have seen the best of his side as he prepares to renew acquaintance at Headingley.

McCullum is confident the Black Caps can bounce back from defeat in the first Test and deny the hosts a series victory in Leeds.

The tourists had a sizeable first-innings advantage at Lord's, but twin centuries from Alastair Cook and Ben Stokes put England in the driving seat before they then bowled out the tourists for 220 second time around.

McCullum said: "I still believe we've got some very good players within our group and scoring 520 in the first innings is testament to that. It's not panic stations, we just need to improve a couple of our rough edges.

Live Test Cricket

"I still felt as if we played a good Test match in our last game and whilst we're disappointed to have lost, we still scored over 730 runs and still took 20 wickets which on most occasions when you put those sorts of numbers up on the board, you'd probably say you'd win a Test match.

"We have to cop it on the chin, the loss, but I'm pretty sure we've got some improvement left in us here as well."

McCullum shared a beer with his English counterpart Alastair Cook after the Lord's Test and admiited that his resolve made him a formidable opponent. 

More from England V New Zealand, 2nd Test, 2015

He said: "He's got a strong character. He's now in that position where he is the leader of the England team and the guys have responded to him. His statistics throughout his career are superb."

 Watch the opening day of the second Test live on Sky Sports 2 at 10.30am on Friday.

Get a Sky Sports Week Pass
Get a Sky Sports Week Pass

Don't miss the 2nd test. Watch England v New Zealand on NOW TV. No contr

Around Sky