The Ashes: Ian Healy declares heavy series defeat for England could see coach Brendon McCullum lose his job

He’s the man who England’s Bazball approach is named after, but Brendon McCullum is set to lose his job as coach if the Poms suffer a heavy series defeat, according to Aussie cricket great Ian Healy.

England’s ultra-aggressive method has come in for sustained criticism in the wake of an eight-wicket loss inside two days in the opening game of the series in Perth, where they batted for less than 72 total overs in posting scores of 172 and 164.

A strong bowling effort on day one and decent start to their second effort with the bat saw the tourists own a lead of 99 at lunch on day one with nine wickets remaining.

But they surrendered their strong position by playing a succession of poor shots in a mid-innings collapse of 5-23, before a rampaging Travis Head helped Australia track down a victory target of 205 in brutal style.

If England’s fortunes do not improve as the series wears on, Healy said he expected responsibility to placed on the shoulders of McCullum, rather than captain Ben Stokes.

“He (Stokes) will be performing, I’m sure, even if they are going down that badly,” Healy told SEN.

“So, I think the coach has got to go (in the case of a heavy defeat) because they’ve just outright flat-batted any advice from others that know the history of the game and what you should try in certain conditions and moments of games.

“They’ve taken it upon themselves to do it this way, and if it doesn’t work, they will be in trouble.

“If they go down badly, whether that’s 4-1, 4-0 or 5-0, look out.”

The nature of the defeat saw a number of former England captains, including Michael Vaughan, Alastair Cook, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, call for more balance to be added to the current side’s approach.

Healy added his voice to the chorus of criticism, saying their style was not taking “the conditions, a good Australian bowling attack and history” into account.

“If you want to play this way, you’d want to get better at it.” Healy said.

“You have to have a bit of ticker and a bit of common sense in amongst what they’re doing. If not, they’re going to get hurt.

“It’s quite incredible that they are dismissing so many well-credentialed people. Michael Vaughan came out and did it in Australia.

“The last time they were in Australia, they gave themselves a month of preparation, not two weeks on a club wicket.”

England made their escape from Perth on Wednesday but their stars have headed directly to Brisbane ahead of the resumption of the series at the Gabba on December 4, rather than playing a tour game in Canberra over the weekend.