Cricket News: England Lions VS South Africa Day 3 - LIVE Score and Brendon McCullum's message to the Lions

Brendon McCullum's message to the Lions

Brendon McCullum spoke to the entire Lions squad at the pre-game huddle about the game's significance and the chance it offered.

The big takeaway for the boys, according to Overton, was to try to imitate what the current England team was doing. "We try to get out there, express ourselves, do what we want with the bat, do what we want with the ball, and make sure we throw ourselves around in the field," one of the boys said.

This was McCullum's first experience with England's depth on the bench and a crucial example of the wisdom of split coaching because Chris Silverwood would not have been able to spend four days with the Lions if he had been the coach for both forms due to scheduling conflicts.

All Lions players were informed that they could talk to McCullum about the best way to approach their responsibilities and how to improve their games at any time throughout these four days.

The ideal situation might be for England's Test squad to have a distinct identity that can be recognised in their starting eleven and at lower levels, similar to several top football teams.