Silverwood has been appointed as England’s new head coach, replacing Trevor Bayliss, who delivered limited-overs success, winning the Cricket World Cup at home earlier this year.
While director of cricket Giles insists England are “not moving all our focus back onto Test cricket”, urging the need to find a “balance”, there is a desire to improve results in the longest format.
Under Bayliss, Joe Root’s side could only draw at home in the Ashes, while they suffered series defeats away to West Indies, New Zealand, Australia and India.
Silverwood, previously the bowling coach, told a news conference: “I think we’ll become [the most respected team] by being successful and building on the white-ball success we’ve had.
“We talk about prioritising red-ball cricket, but let’s not forget we do have two big white-ball tournaments coming up.
“But moving the Test team forward, we’re going to have to look at batting for long periods of time, then continuing to build the bowling attack where we can be successful and consistent in winning away from home as well.
“Equally, I think it’s in the way we play as well. It’s the way you win that helps make you the most respected team in the world, so we’ll keep driving the culture behind the scenes and make sure that, when we’re on the park, we are role models to everybody else out there as well.”
Pushed further on England’s batting order, Silverwood acknowledged there is work to do on the basics.
England have struggled to identify an opening combination since Alastair Cook’s retirement, with Jason Roy the latest to fail, although Rory Burns and Joe Denly hinted at a partnership towards the end of the home series against Australia.
“It certainly needs work moving forward,” Silverwood said. “One of the things we’ll be looking at is building a batting group that can bat for long periods of time, stack runs up and put pressure on.
“Yes, it sounds a little bit old fashioned, but I think we need to recognise that we need to look at that - and make sure we’ve got the right people in the right places to achieve that as well.”
Also see – World Test Championship points table
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