England are on the right track

HEAD coach Brendon McCullum accepts England have “room to improve” ahead of the Ashes but believes the intensity of their dramatic drawn series against India will help them meet the challenge.

- RORY DOLLARD Cricket correspondent

McCullum was honest enough to chalk up the 2-2 scoreline as a “fair reflection” on seven weeks of hardfought, demanding cricket, with India snatching a share of the new Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy with a thrilling six-run win in the decider.

That meant England were one big hit away from claiming an outright victory that would have sent them to Australia this winter with the biggest scalp of the ‘Bazball’ era.

Instead, they will travel having last defeated one of their ‘big three’ rivals back in Sir Alastair Cook's farewell series in 2018.

McCullum (pictured) will soon begin the job of assessing how and where things could have gone better, with the aim of landing in Perth at the start of November with lessons learned.

“It's been a magnificent series, as good as I've been involved with or witnessed in my time. We played some excellent cricket and at times, with the pressure India put us under, we came up a little bit short,” he said.

“You're always learning any time you get to see guys having to dig deep and go to places they've maybe not been before.