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Former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is leading the race to become the next head coach of the England National Cricket Team Test team. This might be his first assignment after being sacked as the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) head coach. England had other names in their shortlist, but the former Kiwi captain had come as the frontrunner after several interviews.
Stephen Fleming, who was associated with CSK and other Super Kings franchises, lost his job after a poor TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) season. He will be working with his former teammate Brendon McCullum, who was recently sacked from the Test coach role but continues as the white-ball coach. This will be a reunion of two former teammates.
Stephen Fleming to take on head coach role from South Africa series
Stephen Fleming is reported to take over properly for the tour of South Africa in December, their next Test assignment. England has lined up 10 Tests before next summer's home Ashes, which they haven’t won a series against Australia since 2015, and winning back the urn will be Fleming's first major task after being appointed as the head coach.
Fleming overpowered the likes of Richard Dawson and Jonathan Trott, as well as Tom Moody and Justin Langer. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) previously thought that Andy Flower was their prime candidate; however, he was not interested in taking the job as he prioritised his franchise commitments with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and London Spirit.
Justin Langer, who was also in contention, confirmed on Wednesday that he did not have any kind of discussions with the ECB. However, he loves Test cricket and might have taken the role if offered by the board. Rob Key, the Director of Cricket, is managing everything about the appointment of the coach.
Stephen Fleming, after retiring from cricket in 2007, joined CSK as the head coach in 2009, post the season he was associated as a player. During his tenure as head coach, he won five trophies with the Men in Yellow, with MS Dhoni being the captain.
Stephen Fleming's coaching career
He guided the team to 10 Indian Premier League (IPL) finals, winning 5 titles (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, and 2023). Including the Champions League T20, he reached 11 major global T20 finals and won 7 total championships during his 18-year tenure with the franchise.
Fleming was also in charge of their sister franchises in Major League Cricket (Texas Super Kings) and South Africa's SA20 (Joburg Super Kings). However, he failed to win a trophy in MLC and also in SA20.
Brendon McCullum and Stephen Fleming has a good relationship
Brendon McCullum, who was the Test coach in 2022, got the role of all formats in 2025. But now he has been removed from the Test coach role after England's recent failure in the traditional format of the game.
Fleming and McCullum have an old relationship, as the latter made his debut under Fleming's captaincy and considers him a mentor.
Joe Root is set to captain the team in the forthcoming series against Pakistan, but it will be the new coach who will decide the new captain who will take charge of the captaincy for the long term, as Harry Brook is also in contention, being the vice-captain of the Test side and the captain of the white-ball teams.
