World Cup: Ahead of England game, Afghanan coach Jonathan Trott downplays familiarity factor | Cricket-world-cup News
Familiarity may or may not result in an edge, but Jonathan Trott is looking forward to sending his wards to face his former team England. The former middle-order mainstay has not been retired as a player for long, and has played with a number of men who would be lining up against Afghanan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday.
The likes of Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid started out when Trott was an elite player and have even shared an England dressing room with him. But the Afghanan coach doesn’t think past experience will give his team any additional advantage.
“I’m not sure it’s cutting-edge information. I’ve played with many of their players, and have good knowledge about them. But it’s the players who will have to perform on the day,” Trott told a press conference on the eve of the England match.
The former England No.3 believed teams are not totally reliant on coaching inputs from the backroom staff.
“There is so much franchise cricket these days, and many of these individuals play with or against each other. So there’s always a lot of information available.”
Trott was an integral part of the England set-up, especially in Tests, before mental-health issues cut his time at the top of the game. Nine Test hundreds, including two-Ashes deciding performances in 2009 and 2011-12, are talked about a lot, but he was an underrated run-scorer in ODIs as well, as an average of 51.25 in 68 games shows. If anything, a strike rate of just over 77 is what kept him back.
Regardless of his background, what makes Sunday’s game more significant for Trott and his team is what has transpired in their previous two outings. They may not be fancied to win every game they play at this World Cup, but getting a few big scalps on their mantelpiece is what will count as a successful campaign. In their first game against Bangladesh, it was the Afghan batting that imploded while against India in Delhi, they got a decent score but didn’t know what hit them when Rohit Sharma got amongst them.
“There’s no extra motivation going into this game, even if there’s some familiarity for me as far as the opposition is concerned. It’s just another game for me, another exciting challenge. Nothing personal, no agenda from my side,” the South Africa-born 42-year-old said. “We know that England will come hard at us, so it’s crucial for us to start well, especially at such a high-scoring venue. For a person and player who had to deal with depression and mental-health issues, it would be refreshing to be in charge of a team that isn’t always expected to win, just to give a good account of themselves. The relentless grind and pressure to perform got a bit too much for Trott, especially during the 2013-14 Ashes – also known as Mitchell Johnson’s Ashes – when David Warner called him “poor and weak,” comments that the Australian opener later admitted “went a little bit too far.”Most Read
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“We have a developing squad, and that results in inconsency. A 50-over game is a long time. We have to get 100 overs right, at the moment we are getting 70-80 percent of it right and it’s costing us,” Trott said.
The Afghanan stint has helped Trott see the game from a different perspective.
“It has been a brilliant experience, a completely different culture from what I have experienced in England or South Africa, just a different point of view,” he added.
