Hosts rope in renowned mental skills coach Enoka

GILBERT Enoka, a Kiwi mental skills coach who helped the All Blacks clinch back-to-back Rugby World Cups in 2011 and 2015, has joined the England team ahead of the fourth Test in Manchester.

- FIROZ MIRZA @Manchester

GILBERT Enoka, a Kiwi mental skills coach who helped the All Blacks clinch back-to-back Rugby World Cups in 2011 and 2015, has joined the England team ahead of the fourth Test in Manchester. Enoka, who most recently worked with Premier League side Chelsea, first had an interaction with the team in May before meeting them in London ahead of their one-off Test against Zimbabwe.

Considered to be close to Brendon McCullum, he had worked with the New Zealand cricket team from 1998 to 2004 and also with their national netball team between 1994 and 1997. Captain Ben Stokes spoke on the new addition and said it will help the England side get better.

"All the time off we had between this summer, me and Baz spoke a lot about what we want to do and how we want to take the team forward. We can say as much as we want, but we don't have the knowledge or the experience in pushing teams on to the next level, where we want to go to," Stokes told reporters in the pre-match press conference on Tuesday.