Dale Steyn will work with some of England’s most promising young fast bowlers in the upcoming South Africa fixture, ESPNcricinfo can reveal. Steyn will be part of Andrew Flintoff’s training squad on his first tour as England Lions head coach, alongside former world team-mate Neil McKenzie.
Steyn, who took 439 wickets in his stellar Test career for South Africa, will work with the Lions on a temporary basis. The ECB named a 19-man coaching team at the start, and the tour will run from November 20 to December 14. It will largely include a training camp, but will conclude with a four-day training session against South Africa A in the Western Province.
The team is made up of ten seamers, including two players with world caps in Pat Brown and Josh Hull, and two others who were new contributors to the team this summer in Dillon Pennington and John Turner. The six alternative fast bowlers are Zaman Akhtar, Kasey Aldridge, Henry Crocombe, Tom Lawes, Harry Moore and Mitchell Stanley.
Ed Barney, who replaced Mo Bobat as ECB performance director before this presentation, said the seam-dominated team reflected “England’s short and long-term needs” across all formats. “More than half of the team is made up of seamstresses, reflecting our continued focus on supporting these players to reach their potential,” said Barney.
McKenzie, the former South Africa batsman, will protect a group of batsmen that features three new contributors to the England Under 19 set-up in Freddie McCann, Ben McKinney and Hamza Sheikh. Dan Mousley will secure the Lions tour soon by traveling to the Caribbean for England’s white ball form, generation of James Coles, Matty Hurst and James Rew also of quality.
McKenzie used to be part of Flintoff’s education team in his first role as a senior teacher before this introduction, when he took charge of Northern Superchargers in the Hundred. He has also worked with the South African national team and Wasteland Vipers, and was recently replaced as Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s batting teacher by Dinesh Karthik.
Karthik was one of the speakers briefed on the temporary installation of the Lions in Bharat before this presentation, as the ECB sought to harness local wisdom in construction trips. Jacques Kallis is understood to have also been considered as an option for the South Africa camp, although he is not expected to qualify when a full training squad list is announced on this date.
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