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Stokes turned 35 on the first day of the Lord's Test, his 43rd in charge of England. If he stays fit for the next 18 months, the Durham man could lead in another 17 Tests up to the end of the next Ashes, putting him on 60 as captain. Joe Root holds the record for most Tests as England skipper, with 64.
Captains often experience a downturn in output the longer they spend in the post, with the pressures of the job a distraction from their own game. Stokes, whose workload as an all-rounder is considerable, explained that the move down to number seven was partly to ease the burden on his shoulders.
Stokes' batting average as captain is worse than when he was in the ranks - 32 as skipper compared to almost 36 when not. However, Stokes' bowling average is much better when is he leading England - taking his wickets at 28 apiece as captain, opposed to nearly 33 when not.
Discussing how a coach is able to approach offering advice to Stokes, New Zealander McCullum said: "Stokesy has conviction in what he believes. He's very rational. He only trusts a certain amount of people, which is no bad thing in life.
"If you're able to make valid points, then he is very rational in being able to take those on board.
"He's good. He's doing some great work. I genuinely think his batting is going to get some decent positives in the next little while. I feel like he's not too far away."
Compared to his England Test team-mates, Stokes' absence from white-ball cricket is unusual.
After the three-Test series against New Zealand concludes, some of the Test team will head to play in the white-ball series against India, which is followed by The Hundred.
But Stokes has not been in England's white-ball plans since 2023 and does not have a team in The Hundred.
After the series against New Zealand ends, there is no opportunity for Stokes to play in the Championship for Durham before another three-Test series against Pakistan begins in August.
Durham head coach Ryan Campbell has suggested Stokes could play for the county in the One-Day Cup, which runs alongside The Hundred.
"I'm confident with the work he's been doing," said McCullum. "I feel like he's moving a lot better.
"Sometimes when you don't play a lot of cricket - and we're all guilty of it - in the pursuit of improvement, we can sometimes become rigid or robotic. That's just what us cricketers do.
"Number seven is quite a nice role for him. With his experience and cricketing nous, he's able to operate and guide the tail quite nicely, plus he's got the raw power if need be to score if you're eight or nine wickets down. And he's still got the opportunity to bat with a batter, too."
