World Cup 2023: England rope in Indian sidearm specialist to get ready for left-arm pacers Starc, Boult, Afridi

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World Cup 2023: England cricket team have roped in Saurabh Ambatkar as their sidearm specialist for the World Cup 2023. Ambatkar linked up with the team Guwahati last week when England were in the Assam capital to play their first warm-up match against India.

Saurabh Ambatkar has been roped in for a couple of reasons. The idea is to reduce burden on main coaches - head coach Matthew Mott and his assistants Marcus Trescothick (batting), Carl Hopkinson (fielding), Richard Dawson (spin bowling) and David Saker (fast bowling).

Secondly, all the five members of the coaching staff throw with their right hands. Ambatkar has the advantage of throwing with his left hand which can help the England batters better prepare against quality left-arm pacers like Mitchell Star, Shaheen Afridi and Trent Boult.

Notably, New Zealand's Boult picked eight wickets in two matches against the bilateral ODI series against England just ahead of the World Cup 2023. In their 2019 World Cup match against Australia at Lord's, England lost nine wickets to left-arm pacers Jason Behrendorff and Mitchell Starc. In total, they lost 20 wickets to left-arm seamers at that World Cup. No other team lost as many wickets to left-arm pacers.

The likes of Shaheen Afridi and Mustafizur Rahman would also be featuring the series and England are looking to iron out their flaws. Rahman dismissed England openers Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan in the warm-up match in Guwahati.

Ambatkar has earlier worked with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2023. He has worked alongside England team manager Wayne Bentley, who works in the same capacity at the KKR.

The Three Lions have also enrolled a local massage therapist for the World Cup 2023. Mahesh Aarya will join their medical team and support Mark Saxby, physio Craig de Weymarn, strength and conditioning coach Andy Mitchell, and team doctor Rob Young.

Defending champions England will play the tournament-opener against New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on October 5.