England men have named an unchanged squad for the third Test against South Africa that begins next Thursday (8 September) at the Kia Oval.
Having originally named the squad for the first two games, the only likelihood of a change would have come in the event of a defeat. Even then, McCullum is of a mind to allow players as many opportunities as possible to come good, especially with this group of players, whom he and Stokes believe are the best available in the country right now for their respective roles.
“There are not many people queuing up to bat at the top of the order, they all want to bat four, five or six,” he said.
“We just want to make sure we’re going to give people opportunity. If there is ever a time when we have new opening batters or new players, they will know they will get the same amount of opportunity as these guys have done.
“We have spent 10 years since Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook, trying to find an opening partnership and it is the toughest part of batting at the moment. We’re going to give them a proper go.”
England squad: Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes (wk), Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Craig Overton, Matthew Potts, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Joe Root