“It hasn’t fully sunk in yet,” Mott told ESPNcricinfo on Tuesday. “It was an amazing event, again. I probably never thought I’d coach either team, really, so to coach them both to a trophy is something very special.”
The time was right to bring an end to a storied run with Meg Lanning’s team and England’s interest was impossible to ignore. But even though he was moving into another set-up that had enjoyed white-ball success, had immense depth and were going to be one of the tournament favourites, a lot had to go right to win a World Cup at the first time of asking, particularly after things had gone wrong.
“They are interesting tournaments,” Mott said. “There’s so much that can go right or wrong. Run rate is such a big thing that’s looming. To get out of a very strong group, there was a lot of relief after that. Once you get to the semi-finals and finals you play a slightly different brand of cricket, you can actually relax a little more. Think the team thrives on that.”
“I think England’s depth is incredible. If you look at all the players who missed out in that team – Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Reece Topley – and even the quality that was still sat on the bench, David Willey has done nothing wrong at all and we couldn’t squeeze him in.
“Probably the most pleasing thing – everyone talks a lot about the batting – but with Sam Curran, Chris Jordan, Mark Wood, there’s now incredible depth in the bowling. Thought Adil Rashid had an amazing tournament. Think the way we adapted was key. In tournaments like this you will always lose a couple of players, but if you don’t panic and give other players an opportunity it really adds to the group.”
However, things started to come together in Pakistan, even though Buttler wasn’t playing. Mott pinpointed that trip as vital to what has played out in Australia, lauding Buttler’s decision to go on the tour. Their relationship was strengthened while Mott also believes the development of Buttler’s captaincy was aided by watching Moeen Ali.
“Any time with a captain-coach relationship it takes time to build that trust,” Mott said. “I hadn’t really known Jos before I was in this role. Like any good working relationship, you have to build trust in each other. I really felt the best thing for us was when Jos selflessly said he’d come to Pakistan even though he wasn’t going to play.
“He just wanted to observe and his relationship with Moeen Ali was strengthened over there, it was a brilliant. That really set the tone for us, to build a team around him. He observed a lot from Moeen’s captaincy and [I] think he took a lot out of that. He added an extra layer of calmness and assuredness.”
Mott caught up with a number of the Australians over the last few weeks and many of them sent him messages before the final. “Felt like in a strange way they shared in that even though it was England,” he said. “At least they had someone to cheer for in the final.”
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo