Michael Vaughan: England Test captaincy could be ‘exactly what Joe Root needs’

Fleming has been appointed on a four-year contract, which means he will coach England for the next two Ashes series, and Vaughan said managing director Rob Key had chosen a “very experienced” option.

Former England Test coach Andy Flower was initially linked with the role, but is also the coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore and London Spirit. He excluded himself from the process.

Fleming joins the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise after leaving Chennai Super Kings this month, having coached the franchise for the past nine seasons.

“Andy Flower, from what I read, I think they wanted it. He turned that down so we were like, ‘Okay, how do we get the next best thing?’

“Some say he is not trained in red-ball cricket but you have an experienced manager, a very experienced coach who has been around the modern game for the last few years with Chennai Super Kings.

“He was a very, very good captain in his day, a very good tactician, known for being a really good man-manager.

“Having McCullum still as the white-ball coach and getting someone who doesn’t know McCullum to coach the Test team was very difficult.

“I think that’s why Stephen Fleming came in – he’s obviously very close to McCullum.

“They needed someone who could work with McCullum because I think someone who doesn’t know Baz and his style can be very, very messy.”

In the year Fleming, who retired from playing in 2009, has extensive experience in Test cricket, leading New Zealand in 111 matches and scoring 7,172 runs at an average of 40.06.

McCullum was known by fans and the media for promoting a form of cricket dubbed baseball, but Vaughan Fleming said he needed to make changes to England’s style and technique.

“I’m sick and tired of talking about England’s style of play. The style of play I want to see is England winning,” Vaughan added.

“Whatever that style is on that given day, session, time, England has to play the right style of cricket that wins cricket matches.

“For too long we have only been able to talk about talent and the culture of talent in England cricket – they have to start winning cricket matches and winning trophies.

“One thing this Test team needs is to train the technical side of batting.

“How many of them can see themselves in the mirror and see Michael Nesser, Matt Henry, Scott Boland giving a good length on or around that stump, playing a controlled forward shot?

“They don’t like to say it and they don’t like to talk about technique, but technique wins in Test match cricket and the technical side of England players and batting has been found to be desirable.

“So it’s okay to put a good leader in the team, but I think they need one or two changes in the backroom team to make sure these players are training well.”