England batsman Jonathan Trott has said the team shouldn’t try to recreate history when they visit Australia next winter. “It will be important to hopefully retain the Ashes over here, but then go to Australia and not try to emulate what happened,” Trott said “Try to do it again based on what we did last time, I think that would be quite dangerous. I don’t think there’s one recipe for everything. We need to go there and see how it goes, and who knows, try to win even more than before, not try to recreate history but just do it in its own way and set standards for ourselves.”
England have a big year ahead, with two Ashes series within six months of each other, five Tests against New Zealand (three away and two home) and a Champions Trophy at home. They are currently No 2 in the ICC Test rankings, just five points below South Africa.
Trott, who scored a hundred and a half-century in England’s historic Test series win in India, has been rested from the ongoing one-day series. He backed Ashley Giles, his former Warwickshire coach, to do well in his role as England’s limited-overs coach, and said he was the “best man for the job”.
“He’s done his years with Warwickshire and learnt about being a coach,” Trott said of Giles. “I think it can be quite tricky coming straight from being a player to being a coach. He knows the lines between being a mate and being a coach, and what’s expected of you and what’s expected of himself. So I think the English team of the future, in one-day cricket, is looking pretty good. There’s a lot of one-day cricket, another Champions Trophy – something we want to really do well in.”
Trott credited Giles with helping him regain his focus while at Warwickshire and getting him ready for Test cricket. “He had a lot of experience to draw on from what happened in his career – media, pressure, and getting the most out of his talent. He probably saw me as a guy not doing things quite right and could probably do better. He sat me down and said, ‘I think you’re going about your business in the wrong fashion, maybe tinker with a few things here and there.'”