From my playing experience, the best coach-captain combinations are often slightly different characters and play different roles within the dressing room.
Andrew Strauss was authoritative yet thoughtful, Andy Flower intimidating and strong. As captain and coach respectively, they won the Ashes in Australia and made England the best Test team in the world.
Morgan and Trevor Bayliss were the men to deliver the 50-over World Cup in 2019. Morgan was a strong-minded leader with the vision, while Bayliss wouldn’t speak to the group unless it was absolutely necessary. When he did speak, you knew he meant it.
I wonder whether one strong voice would be the best foil for Buttler. It is the captain who will have to decide about the path he wants this team to follow, and the coach will have to fit that vision. It’s the only way it can work.
My pick for the role would be Jonathan Trott, who has made remarkable gains for Afghanistan.
The former England batter has a forceful personality, can be necessarily prickly at the right times and has played cricket recently enough to understand the modern game. Trott is well respected but not so revered that his presence would undermine the captain.
One thing to remember is Mott has rarely had his best team available to him. This was a crucial part of England’s build-up to the 2019 World Cup. The team was so familiar with each other that it was almost second nature when they walked out to the middle.
In contrast, Mott and Buttler have pretty much only had their best team available in world tournaments.
The new coach’s first conversation will be to try to make sure their favoured players are available more often. How likely that is with white-ball series crammed between Tests for the remainder of this year, then red-ball series at home to India and away to Australia next year, is a matter for debate.
Once the new management know who will be available to them, they can decide on a core of players to take the team forward and the level of commitment required to make a success of this reboot.
There is so much exciting young talent in this country. If those players can be blended with a simple gameplan, it will not be too long before England are seriously competing for white-ball world titles once more.
