England head coach Brendon McCullum rejected all notions of his team being under-prepared in the 2025-26 Ashes, saying ‘if anything’, his team trained ‘too much’ in the lead-up to the second Test at the Gabba, which they lost by eight wickets to go 2-0 behind in the five-match series.

The visitors had more exposure to white-ball cricket than red-ball cricket before the first Test, as they had chosen to play only one warm-up match. They had a chance to correct that in the 11-day gap before Gabba, with a pink-ball match scheduled in Canberra against a domestic Australian team, but England only sent fringe players for it, and first-teamers defended the decision as in accordance with the modern needs of the sport.

“We had five intense training sessions leading into this game," McCullum told

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