India, Nov. 24 -- Brendon McCullum has watched England get humiliated inside two days in Perth, seen Bazball torn apart by former captains and pundits, and still refused to blink. In the middle of an eight-wicket defeat that left Australia 1-0 up in the ongoing Ashes, and the whole Bazball project under siege, the head coach's message was blunt: the style isn't the problem, and they are not changing it.

Instead of retreating into damage control, McCullum has doubled down on the philosophy that turned England from a drifting Test side into headline makers. "I'm pretty confident of the way we go about things," he said, insisting that the only way back in the Ashes is to lean harder into their identity, not run from it.

McCullum's defence ...