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Andrew Strauss insists Chris Silverwood must resist the urge to ‘reinvent wheel’ with England
Sir Andrew Strauss says England would be wrong to over-prioritise Test cricket in the coming years and believes they do not need to “reinvent the wheel” to replicate their one-day success in the longer format.
The ECB confirmed the appointment of Chris Silverwood as the new England head coach this week, replacing Trevor Bayliss, who stepped down last month, following the 2-2 Ashes series draw with Australia.
In his former role as the organisation’s director of cricket, Strauss played a key part in the appointment of Bayliss in 2015, with the Australian charged with transforming England’s approach to the white-ball game, a process that culminated in their World Cup win in July.
Though there is a T20 World Cup on the horizon, Silverwood’s primary task looks to be to lead a similar improvement in red-ball cricket. But Strauss says England cannot afford to sacrifice some formats in favour of others.
“It would be wrong to say it’s just about Test cricket over the next four years,” Strauss told Standard Sport. “It can’t be. I’m uncomfortable with the idea of only focusing on one or the other. With the World Test Championship, the one-day league that’s starting, you have to be performing in all three formats at the same time, so that’s a challenge.
“What Trevor did brilliantly was create an incredible environment and the players took ownership of that team themselves. I don’t think we need to reinvent the wheel.”
Following Bayliss’s departure, there had been suggestions that separate Test and limited-overs coaches should be brought in to divide the workload.
While the ECB have opted against that structure for now, Strauss says he saw signs of fatigue during his playing career that showed why format-specific coaches could become the norm. “If you’ve got one coach and one support staff, it’s too much to do,” Strauss said. “Coaches try and remain fresh, but it’s impossible. When you’re on the road continuously for years, it’s very hard to do that.
“The coaches don’t have a day off. When the players have a day off, the coaches are arranging practice, or there’s selection meetings, or whatever. There’s a lot going on for them. I think over time that really does take its toll.”
Even before his appointment, Silverwood had a significant input in the selection of a new-look squad to tour New Zealand this autumn, with Ollie Pope, Zak Crawley and Saqib Mahmood called up to the Test side, and stalwart Jonny Bairstow dropped.
Also among the new faces is Warwickshire batsman Dominic Sibley, who finished as the top scorer in the County Championship with more than 1,300 runs this summer and is likely to get the chance to open alongside Rory Burns.
The 24-year-old’s patient accumulation looks to be exactly what England have been missing, after the failed experiment with Jason Roy at the top of the order, and Strauss (below) is optimistic about his chances of success.
“He’s had a great year and he thoroughly deserves his chance,” Strauss said. “I always like it when batsmen just find a way of scoring runs consistently.
“I’m thinking back to my introduction to Test cricket. I had to do it the hard way, by scoring runs in county cricket, and I found that sustained me, it helped me a lot in that England environment.
“Sibley’s earned the right and now it’s about taking [his chance] with both hands.”
Sir Andrew Strauss was speaking after completing part of the Breathe For Life Team Cycle Challenge – a relay cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats raising funds for the Ruth Strauss Foundation and ALK+ and raises awareness of rare forms of lung cancers.
