England rope in psychologist of Premier League champions ahead of T20 World Cup
May 23, 2024
New Delhi [India], May 23 : England white-ball head coach Matthew Mott has brought in Manchester City's psychologist David Young for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and the West Indies.
Young has had experience with the England team from 2016 to 2020. He has also been a part of Premier League champions Manchester City during their immeasurable amount of success.
They recently became the first team to win four consecutive Premier League titles. With the Premier League concluded, Young will join the Three Lions for a short-term period.
"He's previously been with the team and he's already been a great ally in messages back to me, making sure my messages are clear. It's always good to have someone who's a little bit removed from the squad to make sure you're landing your messages... He's still doing other roles but we've got him for this series, and the start of the World Cup as well," Mott, England's white-ball coach said as quoted from ESPNcricinfo.
England captain Jos Buttler played a key role in bringing in Young for the marquee event. Buttler also hailed Young for his role in England's 2019 World Cup-winning reign.
Young joined the England team ahead of their first T20I match against Pakistan in Leeds which got washed out on Wednesday.
He returned to Manchester City camp, to help the club prepare for their FA Cup final clash on Saturday against arch-rival Manchester United.
England are looking to make sure that they don't replicate the mistakes they made during their ODI World Cup title defense last year in India.
England got three wins throughout their campaign and two of those came after their title defence ended.
Mott opened up about England's performance in the tournament and described it as "death by a thousand cuts."
"When you've had the kick in the pants like we've had, you can't just go 'business as usual'. You have to redefine how you go as a team. As a group, we've made a commitment to be a bit more open in and around our training sessions, to help each other out a bit more," Mott said.
"In India, all of us were guilty of being a bit insular and trying to problem-solve ourselves. We've made a commitment to open up and be a bit more vulnerable as a group so that we're helping each other," he added.
England's T20 World Cup defence will begin against Scotland on June 4 at the Kensington Oval in Barbados. They will then play group matches against Australia, Oman, and Namibia in Barbados and Antigua before the Super 8s and knockouts.
