‘Everyone’s under scrutiny,’ but Matthew Mott determined to ‘restore some pride’

Matthew Mott admits his position as England’s white-ball coach will come under pressure as his side face an early exit from the World Cup, but says he is “fully determined” that he and captain Jos Buttler can change things in the future. .

Mott was appointed on a four-year contract in May 2022 and Rob Key, England’s chief executive of men’s cricket, made it clear to him that he would be judged on World Cup results rather than bilateral series, where England are regularly rested as first choice. players.

He oversaw their success at the T20 World Cup in Australia last year, sealing England’s legacy as world champions in both white-ball formats. But after four defeats in their opening five group matches in India this month, England’s semi-final hopes are only theoretical and Mott’s role will be scrutinized.

“Jos and I are incredibly aligned and united,” Mott said after England’s last defeat, an eight-wicket drubbing of Sri Lanka in Bangalore. “Rob Key has been incredibly supportive [but] When you lose tournaments like this, everyone is being watched; everyone’s place will be called into question.

“I am fully determined to be able to turn the tide. I have great confidence in Jos: he is suffering now and he will feel like there is a lot on him. I certainly feel like I could have done things a lot better.” But I’ve been in office for 18 months: we’ve won a World Cup and lost a World Cup. I think I showed that I can coach this team. “

Buttler said on Thursday evening that he retained “a lot of confidence in himself as a leader” despite England’s results, but acknowledged his future was in the hands of the ECB. “If you ask me if I should still be captain of the team, that’s a question for the guys above me,” he said.

Mott is used to coaching at World Cups with high expectations after seven years with Australia. Under his leadership, they won a 50-over World Cup and two T20 World Cups – but were also shocked by West Indies in the 2016 T20 final and India in the 2017 50-over semi-final.

“I think by having past experiences where I competed in tournaments like this, I showed my ability to turn things around,” Mott said. “So it will have to happen pretty quickly. But yeah, what happens will happen.”

England traveled to Lucknow on Friday ahead of their next match against India on Sunday, for which they are huge underdogs. “[They] We’re probably the heavy favorites right now,” Mott said. “It’s an opportunity to restore some pride and confidence in the group, and every opportunity we get to play together is vital now to try to find our mojo again.”

After picking a squad with 11 players aged 30 or above for the first time in their ODI history against Sri Lanka, England will once again consider making changes on Sunday. The four team members who were not present on Thursday – Gus Atkinson, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse and Sam Curran – are aged between 24 and 28.

Mott has not committed to using young players for the remainder of the World Cup, despite widespread expectations that England would overhaul their ODI setup after this tournament. They still have four group matches remaining, with matches against Australia, Netherlands and Pakistan following Sunday’s clash with India.

“We’re just going to try to continue to pick our best team based on the conditions – like we’ve tried to do all along the way,” Mott said. “What we need is to restore the pride… that’s our first priority at the moment: to make sure we go out and give India a good fight and hopefully get some good better results than us.”

Brook was left out in favor of Liam Livingstone against Sri Lanka, but is England’s third highest run-scorer in the tournament and one of only four batters to reach 50 in an innings. Asked specifically about his omission, Mott said: “Harry Brook is going to be a world-class player in all three formats.

“We chose what we thought was the best balance for that and certainly after losing those wickets, the deeper batting line-up gave us a chance. We thought we could continue to throw punches through the ‘back, but that wasn’t the case today. “Harry will have an incredible future with the white ball: he’s a special player. “