Cricket Comment: Moores needs to focus on attack and team ethic
PETER Moores inherits an England set-up in desperate need of a fresh approach – namely a renewed emphasis on free, attacking cricket and players doing more thinking for themselves.
Coach Moores is the right man for the job and I fully expect him to implement those changes in mentality.
Some will be down to personnel, such as selecting and nurturing flair players like Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, but other aspects will rely on reorganising the way England train.
I’d like to see, for example, bowlers and batsmen paired up to mentor each others’ game on a rotating basis. For instance, Gary Ballance could work with James Anderson, with both helping to point out and hone the strengths and weaknesses of each others’ games. After two weeks they switch partners.
It would get them thinking not just about their own game, but also about others’, which all helps with learning more about cricket – and fostering a team ethic that I think has lapsed.
If he can do that I think it’s achievable for England to win both Test series this summer, at home to Sri Lanka and India. The one-day and Twenty20 series could be trickier, however.
Sri Lanka are a very good side, as they proved in winning the World T20 recently, but England ought to win at least one of the two Tests. India are very strong indeed, though historically their batsmen have struggled in England.
It will be an intriguing series and victory would be a real feather in the cap for Moores, but it’s vital, however, that he gets the summer off to a good start.
Andy Lloyd is a former England Test cricketer who has also served as captain and chairman of Warwickshire.