Sports psychologist David Young, who was credited with helping England turn around their 2019 World Cup side, has returned to the team ahead of next month’s T20 World Cup.
Young is also full-time head of psychology at Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side and has rejoined the England white-ball squad on a part-time basis in recent months.
Manager Matthew Mott said Young had been practicing with the team remotely for three months and was now on site for the series against Pakistan. The first game of the series was called off Wednesday night. Young will spend the early part of the World Cup campaign in the Caribbean.
England players, including captain Jos Buttler and pace bowler Mark Wood, credited Young with helping get the team back on track after a sluggish tournament following their victory in the 2019 One-Day International World Cup.
During last year’s tournament in India, England players had access to a sports psychologist through an online platform. However, the team did not have a psychologist on site and management later recognized this as an area that could be addressed ahead of the T20 World Cup.
“In India, we were all guilty of being a little closed off and trying to solve our problems ourselves,” Mott said. “We committed to opening up and being a little more vulnerable as a group and helping each other out.”
“We’re in a very good situation and we’ve had some good conversations about it. When you take a hit like we’ve had, you can’t do business as usual. We need to redefine how we go forward as a team. I think the very open and active discussions we’ve had will be good for us.”
“We feel like it’s time to pick ourselves up and go out there and be ourselves as a team.
“I’m really happy to have David back. He’s been in the team before and he’s already been a great ally, getting messages back to me and making sure my messages are clear. It’s always good to have someone at a distance to make sure your message gets across.”
Another notable change to the backroom staff is that England have brought in a coach with local knowledge, with Kieron Pollard hired as a consultant for the tournament, as revealed by Telegraph Sport.
City signed Young in 2019, helping them win their first Champions League title last year and their last four Premier League titles. Young will resume full-time work with Manchester City after the T20 World Cup.
Young has a close relationship with many of England’s senior players and was part of six of the 2019 T20 World Cup squad.
After England lost to Australia in 2019, leaving them needing four consecutive wins to qualify for the World Cup, Young called then-England captain Eoin Morgan. They agreed that the England team would discuss their feelings before they play India at Edgbaston. England’s digital team prepared a short video that showed members of the team talking positively about each other between clips of talented players.
After Young, England qualified for the World Cup by beating India at Edgbaston with 337 for seven, and then went on to win the unforgettable and controversial final at Lord’s two weeks later.
Meanwhile, Mott said he had not spoken to Morgan since last year’s World Cup, when Morgan was a pundit and heavily criticized the team’s management.
“No still [spoken to Morgan]” he said. [critical] But my family and friends were more upset about it than I was. Morgus is there to give his opinion, and of course at first you take it a little personally, but his opinion doesn’t actually matter to me because he’s there to give his opinion.
“If he feels strongly about something, that’s for him. All I can say is that only those in the dressing room can fully understand what’s going on. When you leave the dressing room, you might hear some tidbits of talk, but you don’t really know how the team is run. I’ve always respected Morgues and I respect his opinion. He has a right to it.”
But Mott turned to one of Morgan’s most trusted advisors to turn England’s fortunes around.