Kirsten: I’d want Cook to help build Test team

GARY KIRSTEN would look to recruit Sir Alastair Cook to help him build an England Test team to rise from the ashes of another thumping defeat in Australia. The man who took both India and his native South Africa to the top of the Test rankings is making no secret of his desire to take over from Chris Silverwood once the axe inevitably falls on the England coach at the end of the Ashes. And, in an interview with talkSPORT, Kirsten, 54, said he would waste no time in approaching ‘the best minds’ in English Test cricket to help him with the job for which he was overlooked when Ashley Giles appointed Silverwood in 2019. ‘It would be a massive privilege to be offered a job of that nature,’ said the former South African opener. ‘It just feels there’s a great opportunity for English cricket to reset and look at what they want to do with the Test team, just as they did with the one-day side a few years ago. They have done a great job with that and that’s what’s required with the Test side. ‘The first conversation I would have with the powers-that-be is to make sure you have in the room the best five or six experts on the Test game in English cricket. So for me the stand-out would be Alastair Cook. ‘He would have to be in the room to discuss the game going forward. There’s a lot to be encouraged about in English cricket but when I was with Welsh Fire last summer I asked coaches who their top six should be for England and I never got the same answer. That to me is a red flag. You have to have a settled top six.’ Kirsten’s willingness to throw his hat in the ring while Silverwood is still in a job has led to raised eyebrows in the England camp. But as long as Giles decides to go back to split coaches for different formats, Kirsten would be a strong candidate for the Test role.