Ashley Giles said on Friday that England could appoint an interim head coach for their tour of New Zealand. Trevor Bayliss stepped down as England coach after the Ashes series against Australia earlier this month. Replacing the Australian won’t be easy after his impressive reign brought England their first 50-over World Cup triumph in July.
England will play two Tests and five Twenty20s in New Zealand, which start on 1 November with the Test series ending in early December.
“When we go to the shortlist and interviews, it depends on their circumstances and there will be different circumstances with all these coaches, so if we have to go interim, we will,” ECB director of cricket Giles told reporters on Friday.
“I’m not going to talk about who that will be now. Hopefully we won’t have to, but that bit is less important than getting the right man for the next four years.”
England have not advertised the position, with Giles instead gathering interest before a final shortlist is drawn up.
“There’s some strong candidates out there. You’ll know them, I’m not going to go through the list and who is favourite and whatever,” he said.
“There’s some internal, some English and some very good overseas. I’m looking forward to it and it’s a big appointment.”
Giles was England’s limited-overs head coach between November 2012 and April 2014, with Andy Flower head coach of the Test team for the majority of that time.
