McCullum also gave his view on why Joe Root has been named interim captain for the second Test, rather than vice-captain Harry Brook, calling it a “collaborative” decision.
He revealed Brook had told him Root was the “right person to do it”.
Brook was punched by a bouncer outside a nightclub in Wellington in October on the eve of a one-day international against New Zealand.
“It became pretty obvious that after talking to both Joe and Harry, that Joe was the right person to do it,” McCullum said.
“He’s actually excited, because while he gave it everything he could last time around, he feels he’s in a much better place now to be able to do that job.
“He made mention to me that he feels Harry Brook’s got arguably one of the best tactical brains that he’s seen, so he’ll be leaning heavily on Harry when it comes to the tactic.
“[Brook] said he would have done the job, but Joe was the right person to do it.
“He said ‘I’ll give him everything I possibly can to help him’, and he knows that he’s a good tactician, but he knows he’s not the finished product as a leader just yet, and he also acknowledged that he’s he’s not lived up to those standards in the past.
“He knows he’s got some work to do here as well, but fundamentally we’re very happy with Joe in charge with Harry being able to assist him.”
England trained for the first time since their victory in the first Test – and the Stokes-Atkinson incident – on Sunday. McCullum said he was encouraged by the atmosphere within the group.
“I was intrigued to see how the team was and I was quite happy to be honest,” McCullum said. “There was a calm.
“Guys were still talking about last week, they touched on what had happened after.
“As a group they started communicating about what we need to do this week and how we are going to adapt to these conditions
“Joe spoke brilliantly as well. We know how calm a personality he is. his relationship with Harry is going to give us a nice layer of leadership as well.
“We are grateful for those guys stepping up in this situation.”
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