The process of pulling England apart and putting them back together after another Ashes debacle continued on Monday with the announcement that Paul Collingwood will take over as interim head coach of the Test side in the Caribbean next month.
And, after the dismissal of Ashley Giles (MD of men’s cricket), Chris Silverwood (head coach and selector) and Graham Thorpe (assistant coach) on successive days last week, the run of Official Announcements will continue on Tuesday when a squad for the tour is named. Andrew Strauss is in charge, and things are happening fast.
When it became clear that England hope to have a new Managing Director and coaching structure – likely a Test head coach and a white-ball head coach – in place for the start of the international summer, Collingwood was the obvious candidate to lead the side in the West Indies.
Alec Stewart was the leading candidate from outside the setup, but might be better suited to the role of Managing Director, and a slightly longer time in charge. As is, England need just a very short-term stopgap so, while there will be some change, radical overhaul will probably wait for the full-time appointment this summer.
Nevertheless, for Collingwood, this represents a major opportunity. He has experience of leading England as captain and head coach – he ran the T20 team in the West Indies last month – but this is another level.
If the Test team can move in the right direction in the Caribbean, Collingwood will ensure his involvement in the new coaching setup, perhaps as full-time head coach of the white-ball side (a fairly cruisy role until Eoin Morgan, who runs the show, retires).
England’s coaching staff ended the Ashes discredited, whether for their technical methods – the batting particularly has struggled for a long time – or for bowing to the players’ desires or for presiding over a (slightly-over-egged) drinking culture. Collingwood is popular with the players and is not shy of a bit of fun, but it will serve him well to play the adult in the room.
Over the next 24 hours, Collingwood will pick the squad for the tour with Strauss and James Taylor, still in post as head scout having survived Ed Smith’s sacking last year. The trio will receive help from Root and Mo Bobat, the performance director.
Later this week, it is expected that Marcus Trescothick and Richard Dawson will be added to what remains of the Ashes coaching group.
They have a tricky line to tread when picking this squad. Justin Langer, Mahela Jayawardene or whoever else Strauss (who sprung a surprise, with Trevor Bayliss, last time he was in this position) and his new MD can get their hands on will have clear ideas about who should or should not be in England’s Test squad.
They may have strong views on Root’s captaincy, or the future of James Anderson and Stuart Broad.
For now, the likes of Jos Buttler and Rory Burns will be fearing for their Test careers, while Ollie Pope and Haseeb Hameed – who have more time on their side – are facing some time away from the top level. Chris Woakes might wonder if he has played his last overseas Test. Could anyone be rested?
The “new” names that have floated about in recent months include Alex Lees, Josh Bohanan and Matt Fisher. Those that could return having been around the group previously are Ben Foakes (the likeliest), Saqib Mahmood and Matt Parkinson.
Opportunity knocks for them to firm their names up in England’s rebuild – and the same is true for Collingwood.
