A look at how Chris Silverwood has fared in charge of the England Test side in his first year and a half in the post.
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It’s been nearly 18 months since Chris Silverwood was elevated to the role of England head coach.
In that time, as well as attempting to set England on their way to becoming the world’s best Test side and maintaining their position as the game’s premier white-ball outfit, Silverwood has had to negotiate a whole host of unforeseen hurdles that have come with the COVID-19 pandemic.
What did Chris Silverwood inherit?
In Test cricket, Silverwood inherited a frustratingly inconsistent Test side, one that possessed a handful of world class operators, but also one that had a number of spots to fill, especially in the top seven.
Two obvious areas to target were improving England’s away record and improving the regularity with which England racked up big, match-defining first innings scores; improving the latter would go some way in helping achieve the former. England registered just two away series victories during Bayliss’ tenure and failed to win a single Test on the marquee tours of Australia and India. In Bayliss’ last 18 Tests as coach, England passed 400 just once.
How’s Chris Silverwood getting on?
With that context in mind, England have made encouraging progress under Silverwood. They’ve already registered a pair of away series wins – albeit in the two countries Bayliss’ England also toured with success – and managed to take a Test off India in early 2021, something only Australia have managed to do in the last eight years.
England’s two series defeats have come away to the sides currently ranked first and second place in the ICC Test team rankings and they emerged victorious from both their home series in 2020.
What about batting big and long?
Central to this resurgence of sorts has been the renewed stickability of the England top order.
Since Silverwood took over, England have passed 400 on seven occasions and while some batsmen are less assured of their places after a tricky tour of India than they were six months ago, it is undoubtedly a more stable unit.
Dom Sibley and Ollie Pope have both scored hundreds in England victories and there are signs that Ben Stokes is placing greater value on his wicket than he has done in the past, curbing his attacking instincts more so than ever. Jos Buttler has played arguably the best Test cricket of his career while Zak Crawley has emerged as one of the most exciting young batsmen in the world. On the bowling front, Silverwood has an enviable array of options at his disposal thanks in part to the remarkable longevity of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, both of whom are enjoying some of the best periods of their careers.
Is this really down to Silverwood?
How much credit does Silverwood deserve for all this? It’s hard to say. Crawley’s success, for example, is probably more to do with an impressive talent identification system, but it’s surely not a coincidence that Silverwood’s emphasis on the necessity for big first innings totals – hardly a revolutionary piece of insight, granted – has resulted in just that. Creating an environment in which players new to it can thrive early, shouldn’t be taken as a given either.
It’s worth remembering that Silverwood has rarely had a full strength squad at his disposal. James Anderson played just one Test in the 2019/20 winter, Stokes was unavailable for a section of the 2020 home summer, the rest and rotation policy meant that England were never at at full strength during the 2020/21 winter and first choice players such as Rory Burns, Pope, Jofra Archer and Jack Leach, have all missed Tests for either injury or illness.
Equally, what was arguably more concerning than the series result in India was how England didn’t noticeably improve with the bat across the three Tests played on surfaces more receptive to turn from the off.
What’s next?
It doesn’t get much tougher than the next 10 months for Silverwood’s England. With home series against the number one and two ranked sides in the world followed by an away Ashes tour (with the small matter of a T20 World Cup in between).
Overall: B
