Reports: Mahela Jayawardene may be appointed as batting consultant for England

Jayawardene can get appointed as batting consultant for England side

Former Sri Lankan great, Mahela Jayawardene, is tipped to be appointed as the short term batting consultant for the English side. It is believed that the English side wants to harness the expertise of Jayawardene in the sub-continental conditions. England is going to tour UAE to play against Pakistan in October. The tour, which will last for close to two months, includes Test, ODI and T20 matches.

England also has tours scheduled in the sub-continent over the next 18 months. Jayawardene’s presence will help the team to prepare better for the upcoming challenges. It should be noted that England was drubbed convincingly in a similar three Test match series against Pakistan in 2012.

Both Trevor Bayliss, the coach of England team and Paul Farbace, the assistant coach, were in touch with Jayawardene since July this year to convince him to join as a specialist batting consultant. Both of them were close to Mahela during their respective stints with the Sri Lankan side.

This role won’t be an extended one, as per the ECB’s spokesman, as reported in IBNLive:

“We have had some initial conversations with Mahela Jayawardene around a possible short-term consultancy role at the start of the UAE tour - given his familiarity with conditions. Nothing has been agreed at this stage.”

Previously also England had hired the services of Saqlain Mushtaq for a short-term role as a spin specialist coach. Currently, England has a batting coach, Mark Ramprakash, whom they are likely to retain.

Till now there has been no response from the Sri Lankan board on this. England’s gain could be Lanka’s loss.