CHRIS SILVERWOOD is flying home three days early from England’s tour because of a family bereavement.
New head coach Silverwood will leave New Zealand on Saturday after day two of the Second Test.
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Assistant-coaches Graham Thorpe and Paul Collingwood will take charge of the team and try to reduce the workload on captain Joe Root.
Silverwood has stated that the support staff must take as much of the burden away from Root and allow him to concentrate fully on his batting.
Root scored two and 11 in the crushing defeat in the First Test – his worst match in charge – as his batting average as skipper dipped below 40 for the first time.
His average as England captain now stands at 39.7, which spikes to 52.8 when he is not at the helm.
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And Silverwood said: “Behind the scenes we’ve got to keep trying to strip away the things he doesn’t have to worry about.
“Making sure that when it comes to practice he’s just one of the lads, he’s in there and he’s worried about his batting and that’s it.
“So there’s things like that and helping him and talking to him and try to strip pressure away.”
Root and Silverwood have preached a mantra of patience with the bat going forward.
And although there was some evidence their message was sinking in as their run-rate hovered at barely more than two an over for most of day one, a number of top-order players were out to some loose strokes as they battled in vain to keep the series level.
Silverwood added: “It’s not going to happen quickly but at the same time we’re not telling them how to change their game.
“What we’re saying is ‘this is the plan, adapt your game to get us there’.
“I’m not telling them how to play, I’m just saying ‘here’s A, there’s B, use your skills to get us there basically’.
“I think the more we do it and the more we try to adapt to that plan, the better we’ll get at it.
“We’ve got to give it a little bit of time.”
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