England captain Ben Stokes said suggestions of a rift with Brendon McCullum have been overstated, but acknowledged he must work with the head coach in a “slightly different way”.

The messages from Stokes and McCullum appeared to diverge during England’s 4-1 Ashes defeat in Australia.

Stokes asked his players to dig in, and did so himself with his own batting tempo. In contrast, McCullum believed England moved away from the aggression that had previously brought them success.

At the end of the series, Stokes said opponents had worked out how to play against England.

Last month, director of cricket Rob Key said there had been no “bust-up” between the two. Stokes, McCullum and Key are all to remain in their jobs following a review of the Ashes conducted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Stokes told the ECB: “I’m very confident in mine and Brendon’s ability to be able to work together, because we’ve done it for such a long period of time now.

“But work together in a slightly different way. The main point of me and Brendon is our alignment towards winning things and making this team as good as they can be.”

Stokes and McCullum joined forces in charge of the Test team in 2022 and had instant success, winning 10 of their first 11 Tests.

Since then, England have had more losses than wins – 17 to 16. The defeat in Australia followed a 2-2 home draw against India.

Stokes and McCullum publicly backed each other at the end of the Ashes, but by that time had given differing messages to the media, fuelling suggestions of a rift. McCullum was also noticeably effusive about the leadership of white-ball captain Harry Brook during the T20 World Cup which followed the Ashes.

But all-rounder Stokes said any notion he is not “aligned” with the New Zealander is a “massive overstatement”.

“We agree 95% of the time on things, but those 5% things that we might have different views on, we talk about it between each other and then we end up getting to the place where we want to get to,” said Stokes.

“Agreeing on every single thing, that’s just impossible.”