With less than a month to go for the resumption of England’s home Test summer, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has still not recognized the identity of their new Test team head coach. Plus, the board also is apparently reluctant to make Harry Brook the captain right now.
Starting August 19, England will be hosting Pakistan for a three-match Test series. The Test matches will be played at Headingley, Lord’s, and Edgbaston.
Last month was turbulent for the England Test team. After beating New Zealand in the 1st Test, Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson were involved in a controversy in a Chelsea nightclub, which saw them being suspended for the 2nd Test, which the hosts lost under interim skipper Joe Root, who was asked to lead instead of vice-captain Harry Brook.
Stokes returned for the 3rd Test but announced his retirement from international cricket on the penultimate day of the match. England suffered a 160-run beating and conceded the series 2-1. Post the series defeat, the all-format head coach Brendon McCullum was sacked as the Test coach but retained in white-ball formats.
This month, under Brook, then, England beat India 4-0 in T20Is and 2-1 in ODIs. While Stokes, in his press conference after his retirement Test, openly endorsed deputy Brook to take charge of the Test team, the ECB is apparently not keen on the idea of burdening Brook with the captaincy of all three formats.
Who will be England Test captain and coach for the Pakistan series ft. Joe Root
As per an ESPNcricinfo report, Joe Root could be the captain, and Marcus Trescothick, who was McCullum’s assistant coach, is likely to be the England coach for the home Test series against Pakistan in August-September. Right now, both would hold the capacity on an interim basis as the ECB continue to hunt their new head coach.
It is believed that the permanent new captain will be made from the new coach’s choice, and hence the ECB have not yet zeroed in on Brook for the role, who also leads in both white-ball formats.
An idea floated was to relieve Brook of captaincy of one of the two white-ball formats, but given England’s success under Brook in both T20Is and ODIs, that thought isn’t being appreciated much.
It’s possible that Root could see his interim captaincy period get extended until the 2027 Ashes, and Brook could be instated as the Test captain after the 2027 World Cup.
England men’s managing director Rob Key is overseeing the recruitment procedure for the new England Test coach in coordination with an external headhunter. Some of the names in the reckoning are Stephen Fleming, Richard Dawson, Jonathan Trott, and Tom Moody.
Fleming recently parted ways with CSK and Trott with the Afghanistan team. Dawson is currently Glamorgan’s coach, while Moody is the global director of cricket of Lucknow Super Giants and its sister franchises.
Earlier, RCB coach Andy Flower, whose name was strongly linked with the ECB, ruled himself out of contention.
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