Matthew Mott urges England to be ’braver’ in ODIs against India

England white-ball coach Matthew Mott has challenged the 50-over world champion to be “braver” in its upcoming One-Day International series against India after accepting it was “timid” during the recent Twenty20 International series.

India won the three-match T20I campaign 2-1 but England is set to be reinforced by Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow and Test captain Ben Stokes for a three-game ODI contest starting at the Oval on Tuesday.

England has won all four of its Tests since a new red-ball leadership duo of Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum, the former New Zealand captain, took charge, including a seven-wicket win over India in the Covid-delayed fifth Test last week.

It has been a different story for the white-ball side since World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan announced his international retirement, with England losing matches at Southampton and Edgbaston ahead of October’s T20 World Cup in Australia before denying India a series sweep with a 17-run win at Trent Bridge on Sunday.

“What we’ve talked about was just being a bit braver and being prepared to make some mistakes,” said Mott.

“I think if anything we could have been accused of being a bit timid with the bat. From a batting perspective, there is definitely a real attacking mindset and trying to push the barriers out there and get some big totals out there.”

‘Aggressive options’

Mott, previously in charge of Australia’s all-conquering women’s team, added, “And with the ball, it’s more of the same as well. We’ve talked about being brave with the ball, taking some aggressive options, and then just weathering the storm when we need to.”

Matthew Mott...”[For the ODIs] we’ve talked about being brave with the ball, taking some aggressive options, and then just weathering the storm when we need to.” | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Root and Bairstow have been in outstanding red-ball form in an England Test side led by the aggressive Stokes, with the pair central to a 3-0 whitewash of Test world champion New Zealand and the win over India.

The Yorkshire batters are now both averaging over 100 and Mott is looking forward to working with them, as well as fellow World Cup winner Stokes, this week.

“I don’t think they’ll have to change a hell of a lot the way they’ve been playing but it is a slightly different format. Having watched from the outside for a while they’re obviously world-class players.”

Mott - who started his reign with a 3-0 ODI series win in the Netherlands, which included England setting a new world-record score in the 50-over format - also had words of support for Jos Buttler after a difficult few days since he succeeded Morgan as full-time white-ball captain.

Questions have been raised over whether Buttler can lead England in T20 cricket in addition to opening the batting and keeping wickets. “Whenever you come in to take over the team when you’ve had such a dominant leader for a long time, it’s a real feeling-out process where you’re working out how you do stuff,” said Mott.

“I’ve been really impressed with how Jos has done that and more impressed that he hasn’t actually got the runs but has still led really well...And, when he starts scoring runs, that conversation will die off pretty quickly.”