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The head coach of the England men’s Test team, Brendon McCullum found himself in a tricky situation before play began on Day 1 of the third Ashes Test match at Headingley. On July 6, Thursday, the former New Zealand Test captain was denied entry in the stadium premises as part of the English coaching staff.
The incident took place when Brendon McCullum was stopped in his tracks by a security guard, after he showed him an incorrect pass, as per the report from The Times. The 41-year-old was not recognised by the security guard, even after he was made aware by him about his identity.
It was revealed that the person accompanying the head coach tried to explain to the security guard about the importance of him to the English men’s Test team, but all that effort went in vain. Eventually, the security guard didn’t ask for one of his superiors to advise him on the matter, but at that point, McCullum lost his cool and barged his way into Headingley while saying, “You’ll have to deal with it.”
In the report from The Times, there was no mention of Brendon McCullum missing play during day 1 of the third Ashes Test match. Therefore, it can be concluded that he was part of the English dressing room as the head coach when the match was taking place on July 6.
England and Australia compete for ascendency at Headingley during third Ashes Test match
After two days of intense contest at Headingley, Australia are leading England by 142 runs, but they have only six wickets in hand during their second innings. Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh are holding fort for the visitors with the bat, at the individual scores of 18 and 17 respectively.
Notably, it was on day 1, when England captain Ben Stokes had won the toss and chose to field first. They managed to bowl out Australia for 263 runs, thanks to the hostile spell of bowling from Mark Wood, which culminated in a five-wicket haul. Mitchell Marsh had scored a quick-fire century to keep the visitors batting innings on track.
In response, England were struggling at 131-6 at one point, before their captain Ben Stokes scored a swashbuckling 80 to help the team get within 26 runs of the Australian first innings total. The opposition captain Pat Cummins picked up a six-wicket haul to silence his doubters in English conditions.
