England coach Brendon McCullum 'pretty excited' for rest of India series despite heavy defeat in third Test

England coach Brendon McCullum is "pretty excited" for the remainder of the series against India, despite a crushing defeat in the third Test.

McCullum's side were beaten by 434 runs in Rajkot on Sunday after collapsing in the second innings.

It was England’s largest defeat in terms of runs since 1934, and India’s biggest victory of all time.

England are now 2-1 down in the five-match series, having won the opening Test in Hyderabad but losing their advantage in Visakhapatnam.

Despite the heavy beating, McCullum was still positive about his team’s chances of turning its fortunes around.

"We won the first one here when halfway through the Test no-one would have given us a chance, then we lost the next two," McCullum told the BBC.

"I'm pretty excited about the next two. If we bounce back from this then we'll know this team is starting to get where we want it to get to. Too right we can win the series.

"We'll turn the page and go quids in again trying to put India under pressure. Hopefully in seven or eight days we'll be talking about how exciting it is to be heading into a decider."

England’s style of play under McCullum and captain Ben Stokes has come under scrutiny ahead of the fourth Test in Ranchi, but the coach insisted the players will not be listening to the "outside noise".

"People are entitled to their opinion, good, bad or ugly," McCullum said. "It's up to us whether we want to listen to it or not.

"The dressing room is a very strong place where confidence is high and guys are backed to go out there and allow their talent to flourish. If we allow the outside noise to seep in, that's our problem."

He added: "We've still got some progress to make and some things to improve on, but we're a better team now than we were 18 months ago.

"We're obviously not totally screwed down on the method yet. There will be times when we don't quite get it right because it's a hard way to play. It's asking guys to take the game on and sometimes we have to deal with failure.

"The upside is hopefully continuing to put bums on seats, make Test cricket more entertaining, we'll win more often and we'll be a team that people really want to follow."

TNT Sports is the new official broadcast home of England men's tours of India in 2024, 2025 and 2028.

TNT Sports has also agreed a deal to show exclusive live coverage of every red-ball and white-ball international series played in India for the next five years.

Cricket fans will not miss a single delivery, boundary or wicket of England's five-Test tour in India in 2024.

The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination.

You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.

- - -

TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media.