England add Adam Hollioake to Ashes coaching team to combat Covid outbreak

GEORGE DOBELL: Without Chris Silverwood, Jon Lewis or Jeetan Patel, the former one-day international captain is to join the set-up led by stand-in head coach Graham Thorpe

England are bringing in Adam Hollioake to boost their coaching team ahead of the fourth Test in Sydney.

The tourists are currently without three coaches – head coach, Chris Silverwood, seam-bowling coach, Jon Lewis, and spin-bowling coach, Jeetan Patel – due to either positive Covid tests or the requirement to self-isolate. The strength and conditioning coach, Darren Veness, has also tested positive. 

That has left England with just three coaches to help prepare the team ahead of the fourth Test.

While Graham Thorpe, Ant Botha and James Foster have managed optional training sessions in recent days, they are keen to bring in an extra pair of hands before the resumption of full training on Sunday (January 2). 

Hollioake is more than just an extra pair of hands, though. As a former England captain – in ODI cricket, anyway – he is respected by the players, while his combination of energy and phlegmatic nature are seen as an ideal influence on a dressing room that is understandably deflated at present.

^{Hollioake played four Tests and 35 ODIs for England, his last international outing coming in 1999 (Paul Kane/Getty Images)}

A Surrey colleague of England’s stand-in head coach, Thorpe, Hollioake lives in Australia and was on Friday (December 31) understood to be taking the Covid test required to allow him to join the squad. He is likely to stay with the group until the end of the fifth Test though, in light of the rise in Covid cases, he is likely to only mix outdoors.

“We’re speaking to Adam to see if we can get him to come in,” Thorpe, England’s acting head coach, said.

“He’s keen. I know him really well. He’s a good guy and he’ll bring that nice sense of perspective. He can bring a bit of energy to the dressing-room and the philosophical side of life as well, which is very important in times like this.”

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