Mott’s appointment is a gamble, but one worth taking

YOU would have received decent odds at the bookies a couple of weeks ago if you’d have placed a bet on Brendon Mccullum and Matthew Mott being the new England coaches.

After last week’s appointment of Mccullum as the red-ball leader, we have now learned that Mott will be the man in charge of England’s white-ball squad. It might be a surprise to some, but like with Mccullum, if you dig a bit deeper, it’s not as left-field as some people might perceive.

He’s worked before with Mccullum and also for Kolkata Knight Riders alongside England white-ball captain Eoin Morgan.

I would imagine that Morgan had a say in his appointment - and Mott will now be able to continue the culture that Eoin has built in the white-ball camp.

It’s a gamble to appoint Mott, but it’s also a gamble for him as well.

He has had seven years’ as coach of the Australia Women’s team and has enjoyed a huge amount of success.

I’m sure he could have stayed on and enjoyed securing more trophies with the Aussies, but he’s obviously felt that he wants to challenge himself in the men’s game on the international scene. Mott faces a tough challenge, though.

I read an article about Mccullum which said he didn’t fancy the white-ball job because of England’s standing in the game. But with the red-ball setup, it’s been a bit of a train crash and Mccullum obviously feels he can have a bigger impact in that format.

Mott, though, is joining a side which is already powerful and that will be a challenge for him to keep England where they are in the rankings.

If you have two coaches, you need them to work together, that is key. With Mott and Mccullum having worked together before, that shouldn’t be a problem.

I’m sure some England supporters will be a bit baffled by the appointment of Mott.

But we have to back the decision made by informed people.

In all honesty, how many people knew a huge amount about Trevor Bayliss or Duncan Fletcher before they took on the job? Meanwhile, England have announced their squad for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s next month.

It was good to see Durham seamer Matty Potts and Yorkshire batsman Harry Brook selected in the 13man party.

The list of absent seamers is ridiculous with Ollie Robinson, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Olly Stone and Chris Woakes unavailable.

But it is still good to see Potts included. He was the best bowler on show when we played them at Worcestershire the other week and has been one of the stand-out bowlers in the County Championship.

I think it’s a bit of a shame that Lancashire leg-spinner Matt Parkinson hasn’t been included.

He has been very impressive so far this season, but the selectors have opted to stick with Jack Leach, who bowled admirably in the Caribbean. I guess that they have to stick with Leach for a while now - although it would be great to see Parky play, just so we can find out what he’s like at Test level.

I am biased because of his Staffordshire connections, but I’m sure he will continue to keep knocking on the door.

The other intriguing choice is that Ollie Pope will bat at number three... a position he’s never batted in before in first-class cricket.

It’s far easier to move down the batting order than up it, so it will be interesting to see how Pope deals with it. He should embrace it. We have problems with positions one to three in the batting order and no-one has cemented their place. So Pope should see this as a chance to push his credentials to be the longterm solution at number three.

Aside from those choices there weren’t too many surprises from the first squad under Mccullum and Ben Stokes - but they didn’t have many options.