The “old-fashioned” Zimbabwe great firming as England's next Test coach

After four years of Bazball and Brendon McCullum being in charge of England’s men’s Test team, the ECB is officially on the lookout for a new coach.  

And with the governing body set to begin its search, Robert Craddock thinks they’ll look for the complete opposite in McCullum’s replacement.

It has been a disastrous couple of weeks for England’s men’s team in the Test arena, having lost their three-match Test series against New Zealand on home soil, which has now marked the end of the Kiwi's tenure.

While the ECB is open to potentially having an interim coach for their upcoming Test series against Pakistan on August 19, chief executive Richard Gould is hopeful that the role will be filled before then.

Several candidates, such as former Australian coach Justin Langer alongside former England players Andrew Flintoff and Jonathan Trott, have had their names thrown into the mix.

But the current favourite for the position is Andy Flower, who coached England between 2009 and 2014 and has since had success within the short-form circuit in India and England.

With his old-school approach, the News Corp journalist thinks the former Zimbabwean captain could be the antidote to Bazball.

“I'm fascinated by who they will appoint as coach,” Craddock said on SEN’s Whateley.

“There's a massive push on for Zimbabwean Andy Flower, who's coaching in The Hundred (with the London Spirit) and the IPL (with Royal Challengers Bengaluru).

“He's an old-fashioned, hard-nosed hard-arse.

“He carries himself like a military major. He struts around; even his demeanour is that, but that's just what they need.

“And always remember this, when you have a coaching appointment after someone is sacked, you always go looking for the attributes that the sacked man didn't have.

“An example is when the serious Mickey Arthur was axed (by Australia), they brought in Darren Lehmann, who had a fresher, more free-flowing approach to life.

“When they got sick of that free-flowing approach to life, they brought in a hard-nosed Justin Langer, who was gonna put a bit of fibre back into him.

“When he got too serious, they went light again to Andrew McDonald.

“So, the next coach will be anti-Bazball or he'll have a lot of fibre to him, there'll be harder training sessions, there'll be tougher players.”

McCullum remains part of England’s set-up as their ODI and T20 coach.

He is currently with the squad as part of their three-match ODI series against India, which begins on Tuesday (local time).