England’s cricket team would be buoyed by the presence of Andrew Flintoff as an assistant (*unpaid one). Recently, England clinched the ODI series against New Zealand by 3-1 and the 3-match ODI series against Ireland by 1-0. Andrew Flintoff is assumed to have brought back the winning spirit in the group.
England though can’t be taken for granted despite their ODI track record not so good post ODI WC 2019. Skipper Jos Buttler will have to perhaps adopt horses for courses way as playing the same bunch of 11 players won’t be that productive as the pitches in India could be unpredictable as the pitch comes under the scrutiny of ICC.
Andrew Flintoff hammers me more than anyone else- Marcus Trescothick
England’s assistant head coach Marcus Trescothick was having an interaction with ESPNcricinfo and jokingly said that Flintoff hammers him. Marcus Trescothick pointed out that Andrew Flintoff has been superb for the players and management.
“It’s been hard actually because he hammers me more than anyone else. I’m the first target for his banter at the moment, but having him around has been superb, it really has. Seeing him grow back into Freddie and getting back into the cricket…obviously he’s been away from cricket for a long period of time. But this is where it all starts and where it belongs for him. The guys have really taken to him,'” said Marcus Trescothick.
Andrew Flintoff has been brilliant- Marcus Trescothick
Marcus Trescothick stated that Andrew Flintoff has given amazing prep talks in the changing room and the assistant head coach termed the talk as ‘wow’. Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Flintoff played a lot of cricket as Trescothick was happy after seeing Flintoff’s progression. Trescothick pointed out that a comfortable environment brings out the best of the players rather than being dominant & aggressive.
“Andrew Flintoff has been brilliant. A couple of times he’s spoken in the changing-room it’s been like, ‘wow’. You can see the difference, and I’ve seen the progression of him as a character; the way he talks and delivers messages to players has been superb. To have him sprinkling a bit of gold dust around the team and having the younger players working with that has been invaluable, really. You can’t put a price on it,” said Marcus Trescothick.
“You become more comfortable, don’t you? This is what we know, this is what we’ve grown up with for so many years. Once you come to your comfortable environment, you know what goes on and you understand the place, people have respect for what he has done and enjoy seeing him improving.” he stated.
“That’s really good from our point of view. If we as players and squads and cricket in general keep doing that for people who have fallen on tougher times, then great, we’re doing something right,” he added.