The Athletic has launched a Cricket WhatsApp Channel. Click here to join.There were thousands of words spoken by England coach Brendon McCullum in a carefully-managed media day at the central London headquarters of Rothesay on Friday.First came an interview conducted by Isa Guha primarily for the employees of one of the ECB’s primary sponsors. Then came a one-on-one with Mike Atherton for Sky, and similar arrangements with the BBC and talkSPORT. Finally came a ‘round-table’ for written media.But, at a time when McCullum and those around him are under scrutiny like never before in his four years in charge, remarkably few of those words were new.There was lots of talk about “refinement” of the ‘Bazball’ methods that were so ruthlessly exposed by Australia during the most miserable of Ashes for English cricket. There was liberal use of McCullum’s favoured boxing analogy — demanding England always have a knockout punch but now having to back it up with consistent jabs.There was more talk of how England have to “seize the big moments” and take a Test “by the scruff of the neck” when it is “on the line”, rather than all too often throwing it away. And there was faith reiterated in the players not to make the same mistakes that saw the whole culture and ethos of McCullum come under question for being too ‘loose’.As Succession’s Logan Roy might have put it, on behalf of all England supporters, if asked to address the team after they lost 4-1 in Australia: “We still love you, but you’re not serious people.”Brendon McCullum saw England soundly beaten 4-1 in Australia (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)In that context, it might be fair to ask if anything has actually changed within the England setup since the Ashes debacle and the ECB review that followed which appeared to exonerate everyone involved in the biggest Test disappointment in years apart from Zak Crawley.More pertinently, it is fair to ask if McCullum has actually changed at all in the five months of dust settling that has followed events Down Under, when he survived an almost unprecedented degree of disillusionment and even anger from long-suffering England fans.“I’ve always had an authenticity to how I like to act as a person,” said McCullum when The Athletic finally had a chance towards the end of the word-marathon to ask the England coach if he had heeded warnings from his employers of the need to change. “It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, I understand that, because not everyone’s going to love you all the time. That’s okay.“I have a firm conviction of how I like to operate teams I try to shape and the teams I try and build. I’m not rigid about development, improvement and refinement. How do you get better and how do you hang on to what has worked for you but add some stuff that makes you become a better cricket side on an upwards trajectory?“There’s been a period of reflection on what happened in Australia and what we’ve achieved over the last four years, and there are some things that did need to change and have changed. Structurally we have made some adjustments and, for me now, the key is how do we win those moments when a game is on the line?“How do we consolidate the position when we’re in front to not let the opposition back into the game? How do we remain authentic to our brave, aggressive, positive cricket while still being smart when required? If we do that I think we’ll see a huge uplift in our performance which will accommodate what has changed structurally since Australia.”England captain Ben Stokes suffers in Sydney (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)We may have heard this sort of thing before but it is not totally outrageous for McCullum to want to “finesse” and “refine” rather than being a complete chameleon. After all, England have lost only three of 12 full Test series since the New Zealander took charge, while, at 55 per cent, the win percentage of captain Ben Stokes is higher than any England captain since Mike Brearley almost half a century ago.And some of the cricket England played in those giddy early days under Stokes and McCullum, notably against New Zealand who they meet again next week, in 2022 in the wake of a dismal run of one win in 17 Tests was an adrenalin-fuelled shot in the arm.It is just the manner of what happened in Australia, and the reality England have not won in four five-Test series against the big two of Australia and India, that means it will take a lot longer than five months for the English Ashes wounds to heal.The pressure will be firmly on McCullum when he faces his home country in the first of three Tests, starting at Lord’s next Thursday, and in the second series of the summer against Pakistan in late August and September.McCullum did not give a clear answer when asked if he was on trial this summer, but that’s probably because Bazball 3.0 is on trial to a far greater extent than previous iterations of the ultra-aggressive style — and with no credit in the bank upon which to fall back.Simply, England cannot afford to lose against a strong looking New Zealand side. If they do, the atmosphere will become toxic again among those usually very fair-minded England supporters and the ECB would face a huge dilemma.Do they make a coaching or management change in mid-summer or do they just limp on through hugely difficult winter assignments in South Africa and Bangladesh and the 150th centenary Test against Australia in March ahead of next summer’s Ashes?Jacob Bethell is fit and will bat No 3 at Lord’s (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images)There was at least some clarification on Friday on team issues. Jacob Bethell looks certain to have recovered from a finger injury suffered in the Indian Premier League and will bat at No 3 at Lord’s, even though he has had no red-ball cricket since his life-changing 154 in the final Ashes Test in Sydney.England are “having conversations” about batting Jamie Smith at No 6 at Lord’s and Stokes at No 7, which could then allow the captain to take the new ball with the recalled Ollie Robinson just as he turns 35. And there was a vow to have Jofra Archer “available for as much cricket as we possibly can across all three formats for as long as we can moving forward”.That follows the absence of Archer for at least the first Test while he completes the IPL with Rajasthan Royals even though he is a centrally-contracted England player, a situation McCullum, echoing managing director Rob Key before him, described as “the world we live in”.Translated that means India call the shots and there is nothing England can do about it, with 12-month national contracts now only covering nine months because England have to cede control of their players to the IPL and The Hundred. England have not given up hope of their best fast bowler being available later in the New Zealand series, but a more realistic return date could come in white-ball matches against India in July.Jofra Archer will miss the start of the England Test summer (Prakash Singh/Getty Images)Interestingly, there was also evidence of there still being a disconnect between England and the counties, a situation the ECB appeared desperate to resolve after the Ashes.It was put to McCullum that Sussex assistant coach Grant Flower questioned the readiness of Robinson to play in the first Test in a podcast before England selected him. McCullum was asked whether there had been dialogue between country and county?“They probably don’t want to lose their captain,” said McCullum with a smile before insisting he was adamant the recalled seamer had put his fitness and perceived attitude problems behind him and deserved his chance of a recall against New Zealand.Perhaps it should not have been a total surprise that so much of what McCullum said on Friday sounded so familiar. The ECB, in their wisdom, put out their own interview with their coach, filmed at training camp at Loughborough, on Wednesday following on from another in-house interview with Stokes which just happened to come out in April on the same day the Wisden editor launched a withering attack on all things Ashes and England.Apparently this is all part of England wanting to speak directly to their fans, but it appeared an attempt to control the narrative, give McCullum a soft landing ahead of his interrogation by broadcast and written media and, it could be argued, was disrespectful to one of their most important ‘partners’ in Rothesay. It stole the thunder from their big day.In fairness the ECB digital media man who interviewed McCullum is a highly respected journalist and no punch was pulled in the questions that were asked. It’s just there was no opportunity for follow ups and a proper inquisition.In trying to cut out the conduits the ECB tread a dangerous path.Now it remains to be seen whether McCullum is still on a dangerous path this summer or whether he truly has learned the lessons from the missed opportunity of the Ashes.His job could still depend on it.