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Follow UsMatthew Mott made headlines in the past week with the announcement of him stepping down from the head coach role for the England limited overs Men’s team.
The experienced Australian coach had signed up to this role in May 2022 after a successful seven-year stint as the head coach of the Australian Women’s Cricket team. Under his coaching, the Australia Women won the 2018 & 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup along with finding success in 50-over format as well, triumphing at the 2022 Women’s World Cup.
These triumphs played a key role in his appointment as the head coach of the white-ball sides for England.
Mott found early success, with a series win in Pakistan and a historic ICC T20 World Cup triumph in Australia which made England the first team to hold the 50-over WC and the T20WC at the same time.
However, the good fortune ran out pretty quickly as England went on to get whitewashed by Australia in ODIs and Bangladesh in T20Is soon after.
They drew a T20I series against New Zealand at home and followed it up with a disastrous 50-over World Cup in India where they won just three of the nine games and finished eighth on the points table, failing to qualify to the knockouts.
To add more salt to the wound, they lost both ODI and T20I series against West Indies in December 2023, pushing the white-ball team in desperate need of a big win in ICC T20 World Cup 2024.
However, England had a somewhat disappointing ICC T20WC in the West Indies & USA. They almost got eliminated in the group stage and never brought out their ‘A’ game in the tournament. They snuck into the semis but got walloped in the final four by a rampant India. The thumping at the hands of India, as it has turned out, has proven to be the last game for Mott as England’s head coach.
The record of England under Mott’s coaching was mediocre in both ODIs and T20Is.
In ODIs, the Three Lions lost more than they won as they triumphed in just 16 games while losing 18 times. They lost bilateral series at home against India and away in Australia, South Africa and West Indies. England won just three of the nine bilateral series during Mott’s time at the helm.
In T20Is, they won more than half of the matches but lost crucial bilateral series at home against India and South Africa. In away tours, they were swept by Bangladesh for the first time and lost to West Indies as well.
England in limited overs since May 2022
ODIs - 36 games, 16 wins, 18 losses, 2 NR, 44.4% win percentage
T20Is – 44 games, 23 wins, 19 losses, 2 NR, 54.7% win percentage
Mott’s success rate in ODIs and T20Is (combined) was significantly less than that of previous two coaches in Trevor Bayliss and Chris Silverwood.
Bayliss had an excellent win percentage of 65.41%, with England winning 90 of the 133 games under his coaching between May 2015 to October 2019.
Silverwood, who was in charge from October 2019 till February 2022, led the Three Lions to victory in 34 of their 57 limited overs games under his coaching.
What’s also to be noted is that Bayliss and Silverwood were appointed as coaches for all three formats compared to Matthew Mott being selected only for limited overs.
The decision to make separate red and white ball coaches was to balance the workload of the coaches and avoid the task of adapting to contrasting formats.
Still, Mott's success was nowhere near Silverwood or Bayliss as England did not win even half of the 80 games they played in the limited overs format between May 2022 to June 2024. This failure to live up to standards is what’s played a crucial role in him stepping down from the head coach position.
England’s overall performance in limited overs during Mott’s time at the helm was so poor that they ranked seventh among the top 12 teams based on win percentage.
They won just 39 of the 80 games they played in white-ball cricket under Mott’s coaching. Sri Lanka (88 games) and Pakistan (86 games), who played almost similar amounts of matches, won more games and maintained a win percentage over 50%.
Overall, even though Mott found early success by winning the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia, his tenure ended up being a miss more than a hit.
When the Three Lions zeroed-in on Mott as their white-ball coach two years ago, they hoped he would replicate his run with the Australia Women’s team and help England extend their dominance in limited overs, which was laid out by Bayliss and, to a lesser extent, Silverwood.
Unfortunately, that simply did not prove to be the case, evident by the side's struggles in limited overs cricket in the past two years, with them falling behind all three of India, Australia and South Africa.
The situation is by no means as extreme as it was in 2015, but England are certainly in need of a mini reset in white-ball cricket.
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