Former Zimbabwe captain and one of England’s most successful coaches, Andy Flower spoke to the Press Trust of India ahead of the India vs England Test series.
“India won a T20 series, the Melbourne and Brisbane Tests this year and a Test series a couple of years ago in Australia, which goes to show that there are ample opportunities for visiting squads to make a mark,” Flower told PTI.
“The nature of cricket has changed, as both batsmen and bowlers have become more athletic, backed by an aggressive outlook. It must be viewed through the lens of changes taking place around us, and it will not be so monotonous anymore as we shall begin to see patterns,” he said.
Flower coached England for 12 years. He joined as England’s assistant coach in 2007 and became the head coach after two years. He coached England during their 2012 triumph in India.
“It would be premature to declare the direction in which the fortunes of any team would swing. However, the English side has a formidable combination of players who can set themselves into comfortable or winning situations,” Flower said.
“All teams undergo such periods of transition when they have to replace star performers that are phasing out,” said Flower.
Flower declined to pick up his favourite side but perhaps he referred to the likes of Joe Root, Ben Stokes and James Anderson while speaking about the formidable combination.
“Building a fierce bowling attack often takes some amount of time, and both Anderson and Broad have dominated the pace attack for England for little over a decade.”
“They will be leaving a memorable legacy behind, and the new set of bowlers have large shoes to fill,” said the gritty left-hander of yesteryears, who himself enjoyed a lot of success in the sub-continent.
“…bowlers like pacer Jofra Archer, newer entrants like Ollie Robinson, Sadiq Mahmood, and all-rounder Sam Curran etc. need to be given the necessary support to create a depth in bowling.”
Both England and India are coming into the series after beating Sri Lanka and Australia in their own backyards. Flower mentioned that in recent years, the longest format has become more competitive.
“…as we can now see matches being decided or ending in result. This is in contrast to Test cricket at least until a decade ago when drawn matches were more commonplace, and batsmen played longer innings,” he pointed out.
“It is not necessarily true for all international batsmen, as it has got more to do with preparation for a series and reading the bowlers” tactics right,” said Flower.
“It could be due to the players not adjusting to the conditions, (not) taking the right guard while batting, or even the movement of feet, head weight and body,” he explained.”
“It often takes long and arduous preparation to adjust to swing, and it is not undoable.”
Flower played 63 Tests and 213 ODIs for Zimbabwe. Currently he is in Abu Dhabi coaching the Delhi Bulls for the T10 tournament.
“I have done one year of coaching in franchises as coach and assistant coach, including Kings XI Punjab, and it was exciting to confront challenges and resolve situations.”
“I shall be looking at another year of that and probably assess where my coaching career will go from that point.”
“Obviously, India is one of the greatest Test nations in the world, and it would be an honour for anyone to coach such an impeccable side,” he concluded.