Freddie Wilde appointed as England white-ball analyst

England have appointed Freddie Wilde as their new men's white-ball analyst, ahead of next month's tour of Bangladesh, as a replacement for long-term incumbent Nathan Leamon.

The move comes as part of a reshuffle within the ECB's analysis department. Leamon, who has worked closely with England across all three formats and founded the data analytics company CricViz in 2015, is moving to the newly created role of Senior Data Scientist.

Though only 28, Wilde has already amassed an impressive CV across franchise cricket. He is currently working with Desert Vipers in the ILT20 as their strategic recruitment analyst and is due to continue as a team analyst for Royal Challengers Bangalore, having joined the IPL franchise for the 2022 season.

He has acted as a consultant for Rajasthan Royals, and has been operating as the lead analyst for Oval Invincibles since the start of the men's Hundred in 2021. He has also had working relationships with both the England and Australia national teams.

Prior to his career in analytics, Wilde - the son of veteran Sunday Times correspondent Simon - was a regular contributor to ESPNcricinfo's county coverage, and has co-authored an award-winning book, Cricket 2.0: Inside the T20 Revolution, with Tim Wigmore.

Wilde was invited to apply for the role by men's director of cricket Rob Key and will leave CricViz, where he was head of performance analysis, after seven years. He will begin with the ECB at the start of February and immediately focus on England's hopes of retaining the 50-over World Cup in India later this year.

In an Instagram post, Wilde acknowledged that the role was "something of a dream job for me", adding: "It's an honour to be given the opportunity to work for a great team with the goal of defending the ODI [and] T20 World Cups."

Leamon, whose use of coded signals from the dressing-room made headlines during England's T20I series in South Africa in 2020, welcomed the promotion of one of his protégées.

"Having taken the tough decision to step away from touring with the England white-ball team, it's a huge comfort to have found such a fantastic replacement," he wrote on Twitter. "The role is in very good hands. Go well, Fred."

The limited-overs side, led by Jos Buttler, became holders of both ICC white-ball trophies after winning the T20 World Cup earlier this winter.