Australian Saker is back in England fold ahead of Ashes Test

ENGLAND have once more turned to Australian David Saker to oversee their fast bowlers in the upcoming Ashes as Tim Southee is unavailable for most of the hotly-anticipated series.

- BY DAVID CHARLESWORTH

Saker first coached England’s pacemen between 2010 and 2015, including in 2010/11 when they last won an away Ashes series, and he reprised the role in their 2022 T20 World Cup triumph in Australia.

‘The Victorian was also in situ for the drawn 2023 Ashes series in England after an approach from Ben Stokes, while he has been on both sides of the divide having worked with Australia from 2016 to 2019.

England announced he will link up with them again before their one-off warm-up against the Lions from November 13-15 and dovetail alongside Southee for the first Test, starting on November 21 in Perth.

However, Southee, who has been a specialist skills consultant with England since the summer, will then depart the group to pursue an ILT20 playing gig in the United Arab Emirates, leaving Saker to take up the same position as the former New Zealand seamer and supervise the quicks for the last four Tests.

Saker will run the rule over one of the fastest bowling groups England have ever assembled, with Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson all able to get up to or over 90mph.