England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould said sacking Brendon McCullum would have been "the easy thing to do" after England's Ashes defeat. 

Ben Stokes' team were beaten 4-1 by Australia over the winter and lost the series after just 11 days of action, but they did claim their first Test win Down Under since 2011. 

Australia are now unbeaten in their last four Ashes series on home soil. Across those matches, they have lost just once, winning 17 of those clashes and drawing the other two. 

In addition to their performances on the field, there was also noise surrounding the team off the pitch, along with suggestions of poor planning which led to the series defeat.

The ECB conducted a thorough review of England's performance in Australia, and Gould confirmed on Monday that Stokes, McCullum and Rob Key would retain their roles. 

"I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward," said Gould.

"These are all individuals that have got other things that they can do in their lives.

"They are all committed to doing the best for England and to learning the lessons that are evident.

"My old man was a football manager. Sacking was part of the job, and it wasn't necessarily the right thing. Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do.

"That's not the route that we're going to take."

Australia win by 82 runs and retain the Ashes. pic.twitter.com/YtIf1CzmmU

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) December 21, 2025

Several factors were discussed at Lord's about how England would begin to win big Test series again. 

They included things such as making the team's style more ruthless and relentless, a commitment to better long-term planning and an acceptance that some of the players' behaviour over the winter was unprofessional. 

There was also an insistence that McCullum and Stokes have not had a bust-up during the Ashes series. 

Stokes referred to "weak men" in the dressing room and asked his players to "show some dog".

As the England captain's ability to score runs ground to a halt, Stokes also suggested opponents have found ways to combat his team's attacking style.

In contrast, McCullum thought England had too easily come away from their methods in Australia.

"At no stage was there any bust-up or anything like that," Key told BBC Sport.

"There's this view that it's either blocking or slogging – Ben's for blocking, Brendon's for slogging. That is not the case.

"We still want players to go out there and be aggressive; we still want players who can score runs against the best bowlers in the world.

"They've just got to be relentless in how they do it. Fundamentally, there's alignment in the way we are going."