England say no 'big bust-up' between Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes as coach keeps job after Ashes drubbing

England MD Rob Key said there has been no "big bust-up" between coach Brendon McCullum and Test captain Ben Stokes after the Ashes drubbing as he and ECB CEO Richard Gould explained why the New Zealander has kept his job.

Under McCullum and Stokes, England lost 4-1 in Australia this winter - their sole win came in a remarkable two-day Boxing Day Test in Melbourne - with their preparation and rigidly aggressive playing style criticised and a number of off-field issues arising, some of which Gould described as "unprofessional".

There appeared a divergence in messaging between coach and captain at points but Key refuted the notion of a major clash and insisted the hierarchy were not looking for a "massive change of philosophy".

Key said: "You are not asking Brendon to be someone completely different; when you are not authentic as a leader, you are done.

"But what we are all agreed on - Ben, Brendon, myself - is that while we want players who can score, be aggressive and soak up pressure, you have to be relentless, ruthless and smart enough to adapt.

"Ben's way is maybe slightly more conservative to Brendon's and that's absolutely fine. As long as ultimately you all agree on what you want from your players."

England played just one warm-up match ahead of the Ashes - an intra-squad game against the Lions - while a number of batters were dismissed driving on the up on bouncy Australian pitches.

A mid-series beach break in Noosa, between the second Test in Brisbane and third Test in Adelaide, was questioned beforehand, while unverified footage emerged of batter Ben Duckett seemingly drunk during that trip.

That came after white-ball skipper Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell and Josh Tongue went out the night before a one-day international in New Zealand last year, misdemeanours that were made public after the Ashes series loss and before the recent T20 World Cup.

England reached the semi-finals of the World Cup after coming through scares against Associate nations Nepal, Scotland and Italy in round one, with their run eventually ended via a seven-run defeat to eventual champions India in Mumbai.

Gould told reporters at Lord's on Monday: "Brendon has spoken a lot about informal vs casual.

"Sometimes when he is sat watching the games comments are made about seeing the soles of his feet and you may take the impression he is very casual but that is not what we see.

"There is a big brain that is working through every decision and every action. When you look at the white-ball series, in terms of interactions on pitch with walkie-talkies, trying to impact decisions as the match is going on and adapt to what is happening."

Stokes has admitted the past three months have been the "hardest period" of his time as England captain but he is adamant the current leadership group can take the Test team forward.

In an Instagram post, Stokes wrote: "Being England captain is the greatest honour a player can be given and I do not take it for granted.

"It has its highs and it has its lows, it makes you want to smile, it makes you want to cry. It completely and utterly consumes you and feels like it's the only thing in your life at times.

"The last three months has without a doubt been the hardest period of my captaincy journey, it's tested me in so many different ways and I'm sure every other captain has gone through this as well.

"Baz, Rob and myself have the passion and desire to take this team forward, we are going to give you everything we have, we know we made mistakes along the way and we have learnt from those mistakes, you learn more from failure than success.

"We all appreciate every single person who supports us. We do what we do for many reasons but one of those reasons is to bring our supporters and fans happiness and a sense of pride and we will aim to do those things as much as we can in the future.