Michael Vaughan says England must win trophies after appointing another ‘vibe’ coach – but insists they couldn’t have got a better one than Kevin Pietersen.The timing of Pietersen’s arrival as a limited overs mentor – he starts work on Monday – is curious, not least because England have won 17 of their most recent 19 completed Twenty20 internationals, briefly occupying the world’s No 1 ranking in July, and have begun turning the ship around in the one-day format too, claiming series wins over Sri Lanka and India this year.Vaughan says of the link-up of his 2005 Ashes team-mate with England’s white-ball coach Brendon McCullum: ‘I like it, it’s quirky. It’s a risk, it has to be a risk because you’re not too sure what you’re going to get because Kev’s not done a great deal of coaching.‘But his knowledge of batting, his knowledge of winning, his knowledge of playing at the right intensity at the right moments, there’s no-one been better in my time playing for England. He’ll add that.‘The intriguing part for me is how this works in terms of the different personalities in the backroom team. England have gone for a very powerful, famous backroom team.‘There are a few backroom teams that are doing really well around the world that I don’t even know, just quietly coaching and going about their business. Kevin Pietersen begins his new role as a specialist white-ball coach for England on Monday‘But England have gone for this and have done under Rob Key for a while now, he likes the big vibe of personality. They’ve got to start winning trophies, to justify all these decisions and, let’s be honest a huge amount of money spent.’Pietersen, 46, was sacked by England alongside coach Andy Flower in 2014, after multiple fall-outs as a player. So, given the acrimonious past, is Vaughan surprised to see him donning the three lions tracksuit again?‘No, I’m happy he’s back in English cricket because 2014 I always felt that Kev was dealt an iffy hand. Kev brings a lot of things on himself but there are many others who have done equally silly things and have been allowed back into English cricket,’ he explains.‘I was actually surprised they’ve brought him into the white-ball set-up. I thought the Test team would have approached him. The white-ball team over the last year have been doing quite well. T20s, No.1 in the world. 50-over team, back on track.‘I would think that he will be having an influence on the batters in the white-ball team who play Test cricket.’Vaughan – speaking to promote the Barclays Knight-Stokes Cup, the state school competition he hopes to see expand from 1,100 entrants this summer to 2,000 in 2027 – also believes that Ollie Robinson is the bowler Australia will be concerned about facing most in next year’s Ashes after his four Test outings this summer yielded 28 wickets at a cost of single figures each.’It’s just so natural for Ollie Robinson. He just runs in and hits that length naturally,’ Vaughan suggests.‘I guess we’re all sceptical of what it’ll look like in the winter when it’s a bit hotter (in South Africa) and he gets into his second, third and fourth spells, comes back the next day and bowls with the Kookaburra ball.‘But here in the UK, I wouldn’t want to face him. And the Aussies will know next summer they’ll have to try and overcome him one of two ways.‘They’ll have to have someone who completely nullifies him technically to see him off or you go the risky game which is Travis Head at the top to try and whack him out of his length. I’ll be intrigued to see which way they go. Michael Vaughan believes England must win trophies after appointing another ‘big vibe’ coach England prioritising bowling over pitches, says Trescothick Marcus Trescothick says England are more focused on preparing an elite fast bowling pack than sporting pitches ahead of next summer’s Ashes.Signing off before the arrival of incoming Test coach Stephen Fleming on Monday, Joe Root’s team completed a 3-0 whitewash of Pakistan as a seam attack marshalled by Ollie Robinson – and including the 90 mile per hour speed of Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue – made the Dukes ball talk in bowler-friendly conditions.Few would argue that the surfaces this summer have offered more lateral movement than others of recent vintage, leading to suggestions that Australia should be presented with a similar set in 2027.But interim head coach Trescothick countered: ‘Let’s not throw it too far ahead. It’s done a bit this season. No doubt about it, more than we’ve seen in previous years. I don’t think we’re getting anywhere near looking at the Ashes (though) because we’ve got a really important series in South Africa.‘There’s another transition to happen with Stephen coming in and working with Joe and planning how they’re going to move things forward from here. So, I think keep it really simple at the moment and just sit back and enjoy what’s happened in the last month.‘I’m not judging on conditions. I think as a general rule our bowling attack is coming into a nice place.’ <!- – ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/sport/cricket/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 – ->
‘I like this attack a lot because it’s got all the different variables that you need. I think we’ve got to be a bit wary of bigging them up too much because of what they’ve bowled against (Pakistan).‘But if they can keep their mentality and fitness and realise the balls they’ve bowled in this series are going to challenge every batting unit in the world, they will have things covered pretty well.‘If you cover the basics in Test cricket, it just generally gets you into a good position in most games and series.’England’s next Test assignment is against world champions South Africa in their own backyard in December and one of the most pressing planning issues for captain Joe Root to discuss with newly-appointed coach Stephen Fleming when they meet up in person for the first time this week is how the top six accommodates the return of Jacob Bethell from knee surgery.Jordan Cox and Dan Lawrence both made strong cases to remain in England’s first-choice XI against Pakistan, but Vaughan believes Emilio Gay should remain at the top of the order.‘Three 50s in his first six games, and some of the conditions have been pretty tough for batting. I don’t think he’s completely stamped his name in that first Test in South Africa because to do that you need to get hundreds,’ Vaughan reflects.‘One hundred would have probably guaranteed that he played the whole winter. He’s looked okay. Looked like he can play at this level, so I’d certainly start with him.‘Other permutations (mean) manoeuvring people out of position. So, that means opening the batting with someone who doesn’t open, or hasn’t done too much opening the batting.‘Emilio Gay is an opening batter, so I would stay with him for a period. On the South Africa tour, we will find out a lot more about him, a lot more about the team because it’s going to be more challenging.’Thousands of teams sign up for the chance to play at Lord’s as stars encourage greater access to cricket in state schools. Find out more here and follow @_mccfoundation on Instagram.