'They are positive thinking cricketers'- James Anderson excited to play under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes

The England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has made some significant changes in its coaching setup by deciding to have different coaches for Test and limited-overs cricket. After appointing star all-rounder Ben Stokes as Joe Root‘s Test successor, England Cricket zeroed in on former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum as their next red-ball coach.

Commenting on the same, veteran pacer James Anderson has come forward to state that both McCullum and Stokes’ partnership is a match made in heaven. Giving further clarification on the same, the English Test specialist said that the duo can go a long way in reviving England’s red-ball cricket which is arguably at its lowest ebb in the last 15 months.

It’s a really positive move: James Anderson

“Knowing both of them as I do, it’s a really positive move. They are positive thinking cricketers”, said Anderson while speaking to the Evening Standard as quoted by The Mirror.

“Brendon is someone I played a lot of cricket against, and since he’s finished playing I’ve spent a bit of time with him off the field as well. Seeing how he went about playing the game and captaining New Zealand, he was a real forward thinker, he thought out of the box”, he added.

“I think those two appointments are positive and should help the Test team get back to where it can be, because we’ve had a few dodgy years, and we are in a sorry position in the [World] Test Championship”, the pace spearhead further added.

Both James Anderson and his new-ball partner Stuart Broad were dropped from the England squad for the away Test series against the West Indies earlier this year where the Three Lions went down 0-1 with the first two games ending in a stalemate. The English side are yet to register a Test series win after January last year when they handed a 2-0 whitewash to Sri Lanka.

As far as their white-ball coaching setup is concerned, former English all-rounder Paul Collingwood and the Australian women’s head coach Matthew Mott are the frontrunners for the role.

The concept of split coaching in the England team was the idea of former batter Robert Key who replaced his ex-English teammate and left-arm spinner, Ashley Giles as Managing Director of England Men’s Cricket.