Chris Silverwood leaves role as England head coach in wake of Ashes defeat | Cricket News

England were beaten 4-0 by Australia in this winter’s Ashes series; ECB announced changes to the coaching staff ahead for their three-match Test series against West Indies next month

Chris Silverwood has left his role as England head coach

Chris Silverwood has left his role as England head coach in the wake of their Ashes defeat in Australia.

Ashley Giles was sacked as managing director of men’s cricket on February 2 in the wake of a dismal 4-0 Ashes defeat in Australia in which England lost the series after just 12 days of cricket.

Giles and Silverwood submitted a report on England’s Ashes failures to former captain Sir Andrew Strauss, chair of the ECB cricket committee, who then presented his recommendations to the board.

Strauss has now taken over from Giles on an interim basis and will make plans for the three-Test tour of West Indies in March, during which England will be hoping to arrest an alarming red-ball slump.

The Ashes humiliation means England have now lost 10 of their previous 14 Tests, winning just one, with the side recording a record nine defeats in a calendar year in 2021.

Giles’ decision last April to axe Ed Smith as national selector and make Silverwood England’s supremo has been met with criticism and the national team have won one of the 11 Tests played since Smith’s departure.

Giles’ permanent successor must make the call on whether to retain that structure and whether to implement split coaches for red and white-ball cricket.

England deployed twin coaches between 2012 and 2014, with Giles in charge of the white-ball side and Andy Flower leading the Test team, but have since had one man in charge of both formats.

Silverwood – who succeeded Trevor Bayliss as head coach in October 2019 after stepping up from the role of bowling coach – lost his first Test series in charge, in New Zealand, but then presided over four series victories in a row, against South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

England then won the first Test in India in February 2021, beating Virat Kohli’s side by 227 runs in Chennai, but then crashed to three successive defeats and a 4-1 series loss amid rest and rotation and constant batting failures.

The home summer featured a 1-0 series defeat to New Zealand and England were 2-1 down to India after four Tests before the fifth and final game was postponed due to Covid-19.

The team’s poor run of form continued in Australia, with England failing to pass 300 even once across 10 innings – six times they were dismissed for below 200, while they recorded a series low of 68 in the Boxing Day Test at Melbourne.

The tour was also blighted by bizarre selection decisions, including the omissions of Stuart Broad and James Anderson on a green pitch in the series opener at Brisbane and the absence of Mark Wood, the tourists’ fastest bowler, on a flat Adelaide surface in the second Test.

England have now gone 11 years since winning a Test in Australia, with their previous success down under coming in January 2011 when they win in Sydney under the captaincy of Strauss.

England’s series in the West Indies begins in Antigua on March 8, followed by Tests in Barbados (March 16) and Grenada (March 24), before home assignments against New Zealand and South Africa.

Atherton: Ashes tour from hell

Sky Sports Cricket expert and former England captain Michael Atherton had expected a change of personnel following the chastening Ashes tour.

“It was the tour from hell for England and there cannot be no change,” Atherton told Sky Sports. “You have to separate what are deep-seated systemic problems, and there may be changes there, from mistakes made on tour, which people have to take responsibility for.

“I don’t think you can come away from a tour like this and say, ‘it’s all going to be fine, we will carry on with the same people’. I would find it inconceivable for there not to be any change.

“In terms of the captain, there is a real dearth of alternatives to Joe Root and he also seems to have the support of the ECB. You have more alternatives when it comes the managerial and coaching roles of Ashley Giles and Chris Silverwood.

“The way things ended was a damning reflection on the coaching and managerial positions around the team. Players who have respect for captains and coaches don’t go down like that.”