LONDON: England coach Brendon McCullum must find the right balance between youth and experience if he is to revive the country’s white-ball fortunes, former player Dawid Malan has said.

England won the World Cup in 2019 and the world T20 title in 2022, but things have not gone smoothly in either limited-overs format since.

They failed to get past the pool stage at the 2023 ODI World Cup and white-ball coach Matthew Mott stepped down after their T20 World Cup semi-final exit in June, paving the way for the cricket board (ECB) to put McCullum in charge across formats.

The New Zealander, who already coaches the test team, will take additional charge of the limited-overs sides when England tour India in January, but a rebuild has already begun under interim head coach Marcus Trescothick.

Harry Brook was named ODI captain in the absence of the injured Jos Buttler and became the youngest England captain to score an ODI century in last month’s series against Australia, in which Jordan Cox, Jacob Bethell and Jamie Overton made T20 debuts.

“England have got the players to rebuild and become one of the best white-ball teams in the world again,” Malan told Reuters. “It’s just finding that balance between which players to back and which senior players to stick with.

“I think you still have to earn the right to play for England. I don’t think it’s just giving caps out.”

Malan, 37, pointed to the dramatic loss of form suffered simultaneously by several England stalwarts during the 2023 World Cup as evidence the white-ball sides were in need of fresh blood.

“If you look at the 2023 World Cup ... the guys you bank on - [Joe] Root, [Jonny] Bairstow, [Jos] Buttler — all sort of struggled at the same time, which is unheard of with those guys,” he said.

“As soon as they started scoring runs again, England started winning games of cricket again.”

McCullum’s record with the test side, whose fortunes saw a dramatic uptick after his introduction of an ultra-aggressive style of play that came to be known as “Bazball”, showed he could do the same in white-ball cricket, Malan added.

“McCullum is fantastic at rebuilding teams and building a legacy and a formula for players to grow and to succeed. He’s been fantastic with that as a coach in the test team,” Malan said.

“Hopefully he can work his magic in white ball and get some of the big boys to go on runs again.

“You can talk about the youngsters all you want... [but] if your senior players aren’t performing, that’s when you don’t win games of cricket.”

England tour Pakistan for a three-match Test series in October, followed by white-ball series against West Indies and then three tests in New Zealand starting from Nov 28.

Their tour of India begins on Jan. 22 with a five-match T20 series followed by three ODIs.

Malan, who retired from international cricket in August, finished as a runner-up with Cape Town Samp Army in the ZimAfroT10 tournament on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2024