Paul Collingwood to be stand-in head coach for England during T20I series against West Indies

Paul Collingwood will act as a stand-in coach in place of Chris Silverwood for England during the tour of West Indies next month.

The English team is set to ply five T20Is against the Caribbean team scheduled to start on January 23 at the Kings Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados.

Collingwood, being one of the assistant coaches, was part of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 and travelled to Australia for the Ashes series. However, he returned to his home country last week. He will travel to Barbados with the squad in mid-January 2022.

Silverwood, England’s head coach, have been taking time off the series for the past 18 months to ease his workload amid an exhausting international schedule.

Silverwood, after T20 World Cup, insisted to continue his duties as head coach but his position will come under observation after losing two matches against Australia in the Ashes.

England will likely announce the T20I squad against West Indies next week. However, none of the players, who are currently a part of the Ashes series, will be included as the series will kick off after four days of the scheduled fifth Ashes Test match at Hobart.

All five T20I matches will be played at the Kings Oval, Bridgetown, where Collingwood lead the English team back in 2010 in the T20 World Cup.

English players including Sam Billings, George Graton and Reece Topley, who are currently taking part in the Big Bash League (BBL), may be considered for the squad and will miss the final stage of the BBL including knockouts from January 22 to 28.

Several marginal players are expected to be included in England’s team. Three top players, including Jos Buttler, Dawid Malan and Johnny Bairstow, are a part of the Ashes squad. On the other hand, several of the players including Jofra Archer, Jason Roy, Sam and Tom Curran, Olly Stone, Lewis Gregory, Brydon Carse are ruled out amid injuries.

Read more: England’s Archer to miss West Indies series after latest setback

T20I schedule

1st T20I       January 23

2nd T20I     January 24

3rd T20I      January 27

4th T20I      January 30

5th T20I      January 31