England v India – The Rise of Andy Flower as the England Coach
The game of cricket which originated from England in the 16th century has never gained so much attention in its birth country than in recent years because of the growing dominance of England in the game.
The new look http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Flower-c44362 took charge as the team director when he was promoted from his previous post of being the team’s assistant coach.
Flower had worked under http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Peter-Moores-c81848 as the assistant coach since 2007 and had spent a considerable amount of time with the English team to understand how to help the squad reach immortality in the world of cricket.
Right from day one, Flower started eliminating the flaws within the national team and it was evident that the new coach was aiming high for the national squad. His biggest triumph came in the summer of 2009, when the English beat the Australians in the Ashes
by 2-1, followed by the lifting of the 2010 International Cricket Council (http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760.
With the Ashes and the T20 title under their belt the English were certainly rising to the top. Flower’s efforts did not stop here as he coached his side to another befitting success against the Australians in the 2010-11 Ashes, and this time the English
managed to retain their Ashes title while playing in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746.
Before the series, critics had expected English hammering by the Australians right in their own backyard. However, Flower’s team left the world in shock as they won the five-Test Ashes by 3-1. This series victory stamped England’s dominance in Test cricket
as they proved that they had the will and talent to take down the toughest team in the sport.
Flower planned the series against the Aussies exceptionally well which was evident from the way things unfolded as the series proceeded. After the Ashes it was time to go in to the World Cup, where unfortunately England failed to rattle their opponents as
even after being one of the favourite teams, they failed to reach the semi-final stage of the tournament.
The mega event was ultimately won by hosts http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 in the final.
However, while India were still basking in their World Cup glory, Flower was rounding up the squad for the clash against the world champions in a four-match Test series.
India already being number one team in Test cricket did not anticipate a heavy handedness by the English who were to host the series.
In fact, no one in India was worried about facing a possible defeat in England, however, on the contrary they were taken aback after being manhandled by England in the first Test at Lord’s where the Poms beat India by 196 runs.
Later, the English went on to win the series by 4-0, handing India a humiliating defeat. This was not an ordinary victory for Flower and his team because with this series win, the English became the number one team in Test cricket while India slipped to
third place.
With the T20 championship and now the number one Test ranking with them, there is just one more target left for Flower and that is the world title in the 50-over game. It will now be interesting to see how the English coach plans to capture the World Cup
in 2015.
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