Marcus Trescothick hopes England emerge from a sardine-tin start to the winter “unscathed” as he and seven players bounce from a cold, damp one-day series defeat against Australia straight into the 40C heat of Pakistan.
The Test squad departs for Multan on Tuesday just 48 hours after the 50-over decider in Bristol on Sunday, with Trescothick, the interim head coach for this side but also assistant coach in the Test setup, joined by Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Ben Duckett, Matthew Potts, Jamie Smith and Olly Stone in making the rapid turnaround.
Coming after an international home summer that went as late as 29 September – matched only once in history – and featured a month‑long T20 World Cup overseas, this departure begins a pre‑Christmas run of three Tests in Pakistan, eight white‑ball matches against West Indies, and then three further Tests in New Zealand.
All three tours run into each other by a matter of days and have delayed Brendon McCullum’s start as all‑format coach until January. Trescothick, back on the road in his coaching career after anxiety and depression cut short his international career, will work with the Test batters in Pakistan and then lead the Caribbean tour.
“We all knew what the schedule was,” Trescothick said. “It’s not ideal, of course not, but these things are put in place by [those at board level]. You’d want a little bit more time and a break before you go away but it’s not possible.
“I know we’re going to Multan, it’s going to be 40 degrees in comparison to being here [in the UK] and we’ll get stuck into it straight away. Once we get past this period that has a tight amount of cricket then it does calm down a little bit. Hopefully we get through this [period] unscathed and we’ll be OK.”
Trescothick expects players such as Brook and Smith will be rested when the white-ball squad reconvenes in October, with Jos Buttler back as captain and, according to the interim coach, likely to take the gloves again. The latter may only be a short-term measure, with McCullum understood to want him leading in the field come the buildup to the Champions Trophy in the new year.
McCullum has also said he wants Buttler to start enjoying himself after a “miserable” year as captain, with Trescothick fancying the calf injury that forced the 34-year-old to watch the 3-2 defeat ` Australia from the sidelines was the first step to changing this.
Trescothick said: “I expect him to find it really enjoyable going forward, having worked with Brendon. Go back two or three years ago [with the Test side], you can see how quickly it can turn around and get them back into that frame of mind.
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“There’s no reason why Jos won’t score millions of runs, captain well and fit back into the team perfectly. [This series] has been a great opportunity for him, just to step back and not worry about the pressures of playing.”
Despite the likelihood of a weakened squad for the Caribbean tour, Trescothick expects a greater convergence between the Test and ODI sides. He endorsed the possibility of Joe Root and Ben Stokes returning to the 50-over team and Duckett’s strong first outing as its opener, and believes the bowling attack must also cross over, citing the example of the world champions Australia.
He said: “Their best three bowlers [Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood] play the majority of their games and they rotate the odd one out as they go. We’re building a stock of bowlers and we will position them how we need to.
“There’s been lots of good stuff in this series but we need to keep improving and make sure we do better for longer. We’ve had moments in all five games where we could have really been better than what we were.”