Australia, under Pat Cummins‘ leadership, wants to keep the urn. They have added three-time Ashes-winning coach Andy Flower to their backroom staff before their ICC World Test Championship (WTC) final against India on June 7 at The Oval in London. The five-game series will take place in England. It will start on June 16 and end on July 31.
Andy Flower, who used to be the captain of Zimbabwe, led England from 2009 to 2014. He won the first three Ashes he played in 2009, 2010–11, and 2013. But he quit the job after his team was beaten badly in Australia in 2013–14.
After Andy Flower was hired, Australia’s captain, Cummins, said that they were lucky to have someone with as much knowledge as the Zimbabwean in their camp for the big event. The 30-year-old thinks that Flower knows a lot about English weather and their opponents, and that having him on the team will help them.
“First of all, he has a lot of experience and really knows how things work here. ESPNcricinfo reported Cummins as saying, “Hopefully, he knows the opposition, so if he can give us one little bit of advice about playing in England that we haven’t thought of, then it’s worth it.”
Cummins went on to say that he thinks Australia’s head coach, Andrew McDonald, has worked with Flower quite a bit and that he has seen Australia bring in different people at different times over the years.
“I think Andrew [McDonald] has worked with him quite a bit, and you’ve seen us bring in different people at different times over the years. We’re lucky to have someone with Andy’s level of experience.”
Andy Flower on the other hand, is not expected to be a part of the lead-up to the first Ashes Test at Edgbaston on June 16. ESPNcricinfo says that the 55-year-old will come back to the team in the last part of the series, possibly before the July 6 start of the third Test at Headingley.
India
