Brendon McCullum: 'We know we've got room to improve'

Brendon McCullum says he has identified areas where England must improve ahead of the Ashes after a thrilling series against India ended 2-2 courtesy of what the head coach believes was a deserved win for the tourists in the fifth Test at the Kia Oval.

India completed their fightback from 2-1 down in a remarkable 56 minutes of play on the 25th and final day of this Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series, securing a six-run win, their narrowest victory by runs.

It meant England missed out on a first series win over India since 2018, which was also the last time they triumphed in a five-match series. They have yet to record a series win over India or Australia under McCullum and Ben Stokes' leadership.

With England next in action in September for white-ball series against South Africa and Ireland, there is time to decompress. McCullum, as over-arching coach since the start of the year, will be across both challenges. But his immediate focus, once the dust has settled, will be to pore over the last seven weeks to see what worked and what did not. Fine-tuning ahead of the first Ashes Test in Perth come November will be his primary aim.

"We'll let this one sit, we'll digest it," McCullum said. "We'll be able to pick out what has gone well then start to work out how we can keep improving so, when we do arrive out in Australia, we give ourselves a huge chance.

"We're in the middle now, halfway through what we knew was going to be an unbelievable 12 months of Test cricket. We know we've got some room to improve.

"You're always learning any time you get to see guys having to dig deep and go to places they've maybe not been before.

"There's lots to pick out as we give ourselves time for this to digest and work out areas we can look to improve for our next challenge. Ultimately, I'm really proud of the guys and their efforts. It's been a combative series, it's taken its toll with injuries, some of the best players have gone home injured.

"To sit here at 2-2, yes, you're disappointed but you're proud of the efforts."

The scoreline mimics the 2023 home Ashes, and though England came from behind two years ago to secure a draw, there were parallels to this summer against India with some of the moments the hosts let slip.

Dropped catches cost them in the fourth Test at Emirates Old Trafford, which ended in a draw, and at the Kia Oval. But perhaps the most painful will be a collapse of 7 for 66 in pursuit of 374 after Joe Root and Harry Brook had taken England to 301 for 3 in the chase.

McCullum was reticent to dwell on the missed opportunities, something he chalks up as the cost of playing a high-calibre team who were able to rally after those reprieves. He did concede the catching was particularly below par; England dropped six catches in India's second innings of 396, which ended up costing them 152 runs.

"We didn't catch very well in this game but have caught really well over the last few years," he said. "Sometimes dropped catches happen and one leads to another. If we had held our catches maybe we would have been stood on the other side of the result. That's life, there's so many little things in the game we could pick out and have huge impacts. We are a good fielding unit and had a bit of an average performance in this Test.

"We threw everything at them. It was testament to how stoic they are as a team. We knew when they turned up in England it would be a very stern challenge and we'd have to play excellent cricket to get the result we wanted.

"Ultimately I thought it was an absolutely unbelievable series to be part of. It had confrontation, it had stalemates, it had passion and it had some sub-par performances under pressure as well.

"The way India were late on in this Test, Mohammed Siraj has the absolute heart of a lion to bowl 90mph in his 30th over of his fifth Test match. It's quite an incredible effort.

"As much as we got ourselves in a winning position this Test match, I feel like they deserved to win. They played better cricket."