by England are to appoint Kieron Pollard as a consultant coach for the Twenty20 World Cup.
Still an active player at the age of 36, Pollard has enjoyed an extraordinary T20 career, winning five Indian Premier League titles and the 2012 T20 World Cup. He is the most experienced player in T20 history, playing 637 matches in the format and is known as one of the brightest thinkers in the game.
Pollard also gives firsthand knowledge of conditions in the West Indies. The Trinidadian will help England assess the pitches in the T20 World Cup, which starts on June 4. He will play a similar role to former Australian batsman Mike Hussey in the 2022 T20 World Cup win.
During England’s ODI World Cup defense in India, the team did not bring in a local expert. Rob Key, the managing director, later blamed himself for not coming up with such a figure, which highlighted the decision to bowl first in Mumbai against South Africa when England conceded 399.
“I’m actually responsible for a lot of it,” Key said last month. “I’ve built a coaching staff that didn’t really have any local experience. Actually someone who knows these conditions well says, ‘By the way, it’s hotter than the sun out there; make sure you have a bat’. We got so excited about what was going to happen five or six hours later.”
The appointment will give Pollard the opportunity to reunite with former team-mate and England captain Jos Buttler. In 2010 and 2011, Pollard played alongside Buttler for Somerset. Buttler later shared a dressing room with Pollard at the Mumbai Indians and spoke about how West Indies’ approach to T20s shaped his own.
“I heard a few guys talking about it, like, ‘There’s eight quarters left, if we hit five sixes in that time, we’ll win’,” Buttler said. “It’s just a different way of thinking.”
Pollard has been spotted at the team hotel in Trinidad in recent days as England play the final two matches of their five-match T20 series against the West Indies, which they lost 3-2.
Although Pollard still plays in several T20 leagues, he retired from the Indian Premier League ahead of the 2023 tournament to become the batting coach of Mumbai Indians. At the franchise he also worked alongside Jofra Archer.
Pollard is initially expected to be involved with England for the T20 World Cup only. But if the partnership is successful, he could still be enlisted to work with the other side in the future.
A familiar question will dominate England’s preparation for the World Cup
A successful Caribbean tour for England? Butler, was the answer.
“I think so,” declared the captain before the flight home from Trinidad and Tobago. “We all wanted to win the series and it’s hard to say when you’ve lost, but I think we’ve found some good things.
“Some players stood up and did really well. We’ve obviously had five games out here in the Caribbean and we’ve had a very good look at the conditions for the World Cup just six months away. Yes, it was a good series.”
On one level, Buttler’s logic is hard to fault. Being in the Caribbean should help England when they return here in six months; so Pollard will sign on as an advisory coach.
Dropping Ben Duckett after one game and elevating Liam Livingstone to No. 4, England had a clue to adapt to the demands of T20 in the Caribbean. For all the variation in conditions during the remarkable five-game series, one trend held true: in each of the five games, the side that scored the six most won. England cleared the ropes 56 times in the series.
An excellent opening partnership between Buttler and Alex Hales underpinned England’s victory in the T20 World Cup last year. Now, England could have an even more effective opening pair: Buttler and Phil Salt added back-to-back century partnerships. On both occasions, Salt made hundreds. Although attacking in the Powerplay is still unstoppable, Salt has developed more range after that.
But while England have improved significantly in the last three games, they still leave the Caribbean having lost both white-ball series: a 2-1 loss in the ODIs and a 3-2 win in the T20Is. The T20 squad, as head coach Matthew Mott said, is “very close” to the group that will return here in June.
The West Indies are a fine team in this format, especially at home: this was their third consecutive win in the series, having beaten South Africa and India earlier this year. But, in the T20 series, England faced them with an experienced squad. The England team for the two matches in Trinidad included 10 players with IPL experience, and eight men who played in last year’s T20 World Cup final.
Uncertainty remains about how England can hold together to defend their trophy. Will Jacks is a prolific batsman, but averaged just 14.6 in T20s. Ben Stokes and possibly Jonny Bairstow are set to return to the T20 side in June.
Sam Curran, player of the tournament in the T20 World Cup 2022, has had an eventful year; He conceded 11.9 overs in the series, bowling just two wickets per game. Apart from Reece Topley, England’s best white-ball bowler this winter, the other seamen also struggled, especially at the death. For all the excitement of pairing two leg spinners together, Rehan Ahmed did not match his performances in the ODI series.
And so England will face a familiar question ahead of the T20 World Cup: will Jofra Archer be fit?
