After England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) publicly advertised for two new head coaches, one for their Test squad and the other for white-ball cricket, England will revert to a split-coaching structure for the first time in eight years.
Since Rob Key’s appointment as managing director of men’s cricket, the decision to split the coaching role in two has been widely anticipated, and it has now been officially confirmed, with candidates being invited to apply for their desired role by May 6 and first-round interviews set for May 9 and 10. On June 2, England will play New Zealand in their second Test, while their next limited-overs series will begin on June 17 in the Netherlands.
From 2012 to 2014, Andy Flower (Tests) and Ashley Giles (ODIs and T20Is) divided the role and had a tense relationship, with England’s finest players often rested from limited-overs series, but the level of expectation for England’s white-ball sides is substantially higher currently.
Due to the rigors of the schedule, Chris Silverwood, who was fired after the Ashes defeat in Australia, missed many limited-overs series. The schedule for the next 12 months is as demanding: six consecutive England trips are set for the winter of 2021-22, while the Netherlands ODI series takes place in June between the second and third Tests against New Zealand, necessitating separate squads.
Rob Key will be formally unveiled to the media at Lord’s on Thursday, just over a week after starting his new role, and is expected to present a clearer outline of his vision to revive the England teams after a disappointing winter that saw the Test team go winless across eight games and the T20I side beaten in the semi-finals of the World Cup in the UAE.
While working as a pundit for Sky Sports, Key was critical of his predecessor Giles’ decision to make the position of national selector redundant and hand those duties to Silverwood. He is yet to confirm whether he will appoint a single selector, but the advertisement for the coaching roles stipulates that each new head coach will play “a central role in selecting the team for their respective format alongside a national selection panel”.
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