Adam Hollioake added to coaching staff after Covid-19 isolation rules hit tourists
Thorpe said that the lack of Lions tours and training camps over the last 21 months due to the pandemic meant that England’s young batters were learning “the basic skills” of Test cricket on the job, and suggested that county cricket was not providing adequate preparation.
“With some players it’s a wake-up call,” Thorpe said. “It could actually kick-start their careers because they’ve started training in a very, very different way. They actually start to train smart. They don’t waste time hitting half-volleys.
“I don’t mean that in a bad way but they actually deal with the actual nitty gritty side of international cricket, playing high-quality spin, high-quality pace bowling and learning how to put pressure back on. If a guy’s bowling well, [they have to] get through it for six, seven or eight overs.
“County cricket is what it is. You’ve got to lift players out of there, then educate them into international cricket. There have been no Lions tours and no training camps for our younger players to actually learn the basic skills of the game as well. They’re trying to learn it in county cricket, but the truth is when they come out of county cricket, they have to learn it again, because Test cricket is 10 times harder.
“We are still trying to educate some of the younger guys into the rhythm of Test match batting: playing situations in the game and doing it for long periods of time. Some of them haven’t been able to do it yet. Some of our young players are getting an education and if they didn’t know before, they understand how tough Test cricket is now.”
“I told him: ‘you’ve played 30 Test matches and you average 30, so we want you to be doing more, to be better than that as a player,'” Thorpe said. “So we’ve had discussions with him – does he need a major overhaul of his technique or just to tinker with things?
“He needs to do the simple things better. So can he calm things down with his movements and everything? We’ve been talking him through that. It’s tough in competition. Everyone says do you work with them? Yes you do, but you can’t pick away at people’s brains too much walking into Test matches. Sometimes they have to come out and then you can reset a little bit.
“When players get a little bit of success they then think, ‘My way is the right way’. And there’s a balance to it. You can see certain things. I said to him, ‘The best bowlers in the world are going to analyse your technique and the right-hand column is going to tell you whether you’re getting it right or not’.
“We’ve seen he’s got a good fighting character, so I know that. But at the same time you need a technique and temperament at the highest level. I think he can come back again and play for England definitely but he’s very clear those little adjustments are going to help him to stay at the crease longer.”
