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Flintoff to fill in for Trescothick ahead of England's third Test against Sri Lanka

Andrew Flintoff's Northern Superchargers finished fourth in the 2024 men's Hundred ECB via Getty Images

Andrew Flintoff will work with England's batters ahead of their third Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval next week, with Marcus Trescothick taking a short break ahead of his stint as interim white-ball head coach for September's series against Australia at home.

Flintoff has been involved in England's white-ball set-up for the past year, including at June's T20 World Cup, but will not be part of Trescothick's coaching staff for the three T20Is and five ODIs against Australia next month. He recently had his first experience as a head coach at the Hundred, his Northern Superchargers finishing fourth and narrowly missing out on qualification.

He is expected to link up with the Test squad on Wednesday for the first of two training days, and will be part of Brendon McCullum's staff throughout the third Test. He is only filling the role on a short-term basis and is not expected to be involved on the winter tours of Pakistan and New Zealand.

Trescothick will have a few days off after the second Test at Lord's, which is scheduled to finish on Monday, before linking up with his white-ball squad ahead of the first T20I at the Utilita Bowl near Southampton, to be played on September 11. His backroom staff will be largely the same as Matthew Mott's, with the short-term addition of England Under-19s coach Michael Yardy.

He is yet to decide whether he will apply for the white-ball head coach's role on a permanent basis. "I'm still very focused on the batting stuff with the Test team," he told Sky Sports on Friday. "I'm going to let this play out and see what happens for this period of time, and see how much I enjoy doing the head coach's role and then go from there really. I'm quite open to the idea of seeing what's going to happen."

Trescothick will work alongside Jos Buttler, his old Somerset team-mate, who has been backed to continue as captain but may relinquish the wicketkeeping gloves in the T20Is. "It's definitely something we'll think about," Trescothick said, "because we can try different options, give it a go for a period of time and see what reaction it has on his captaincy and on the team.

"For whatever reason, there were a tough couple of World Cups that they had in the meantime and we've come out of those not feeling too great about our one-day cricket. But it's still in a really good place, and Jos is going to lead that forward for a period of time at the moment - and I don't see it changing."