Selection headaches await for England, but they won’t be for Marcus Trescothick. With his time as interim head coach over, Trescothick is clearing the way for England’s new, new white-ball era to begin under Brendon McCullum.
“We’re waiting for the finalised side of what happens from January onwards,” Trescothick said of when the ultimate call will be made on what the coaching set-up will look like. “I think when Brendan and Rob [Key] get together, they’ll finalise that probably during New Zealand.”
Trescothick has been in charge for England’s series against Australia in September and now their tour of the Caribbean, the latter of which he described as “perfect” and leaving the team in the best place possible to be taken over by McCullum.
“If you look at the end result,” Trescothick said, “we’ve won one of the two series and we’ve won various games in both series that we’ve played and we’ve seen more players. So you sit back and you look at it on paper and go: perfect.”
Because of the crammed schedule, England had taken several young players out to West Indies, with four making debuts across the tour. The balance, Trescothick argued, was to blend winning with learning – an objective that was achieved.
“Of course, you always want to win. But I think if we’d have had one objective on this trip, more than anything else that was to see the players we’ve seen and see whether they’re going to be good enough next week, next month, next year, or for three years’ time.”
The shiniest new toy that awaits McCullum is Jacob Bethell. The Bajan-born left-hander looks the real deal. During the ODI series, he became the third youngest half-centurion for England in the format’s history, and across the four T20s, he made two fifties, averaged 127 and struck at 173.97. Job done.
McCullum will be able to get to know Bethell sooner rather than later, with the 21-year-old set to be the reserve batter on England’s tour of New Zealand. That despite a meagre first-class record where he has zero centuries in 20 appearances.
“All the attributes are there,” Trescothick argued in favour of Bethell’s chances of transferring his white-ball ability across. “If you had markers to be able to go, right, you need to do this, this and this, he’d be knocking on the door for that.
“There’s no reason why he can’t break through and succeed, because he’s flourished in both formats that we’ve seen in the recent period of time. You could almost see him being the next youngster after Harry Brook, the real exciting one coming through for the next journey this group will take.”
Saqib Mahmood was also singled out for his “superb” performances and was arguably the only player already established within the England set-up to cement his spot moving forward. His nine wickets across four matches earned him the Player-of-the-Series award.
McCullum’s appointment will also present captain Jos Buttler with the first real opportunity to mould a team in his image. Since taking over in 2022, Buttler has largely ridden the momentum of the Eoin Morgan era – which carried them to their T20 World Cup victory – before attempting to get the band back together for one last ODI dance in 2023, only for it to all fall apart.
Now, however, as Buttler targets the final years of his career as potentially the most “rewarding”, he has the chance to start afresh with a new group of players.
After four months out, Buttler returned to form almost immediately, with 83 in his second innings and captaining with a smile on his face throughout. His fields were inventive and often hyper-aggressive, with two slips and a short-leg in position thanks to Mahmood and Jofra Archer taking early wickets in the powerplay.
“You can sort of see it falling back into place for him almost,” Trescothick said of Buttler. “A little bit where it’s hopefully some more enjoyable times coming forward with the growth of the team, but also with other other players coming back in and a bit more settled structure with the coaching as well.”
The question of ODI returns for Ben Stokes and Joe Root will be the ultimate litmus test. Both are still fantastic players, but arguably represent a step backwards if, after pursuing a policy of youth, you return to two men who have been absent since the 2023 World Cup.
That, however, is also easier said than done. The ODI side was desperately lacking experience, with the absence of a Root or Shai Hope-style player from England’s line-up glaring across the series.
“I don’t know exactly,” Buttler said of whether the pair will be back in February. “It’s conversations for the next few weeks with the guys in charge. The guys here have played really well. Some of the young players have done themselves no harm at all. There are people who aren’t here who will have aspirations to be in the white-ball side as well. It’s really exciting.”
Whatever happens next, the latest new era is set to begin.
Cameron Ponsonby is a freelance cricket writer in London. @cameronponsonby
