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The England men's senior Test cricket team will have their first woman coach as Sarah Taylor joins the side as the fielding coach. The England and Wales Cricket Board has signed the former England wicketkeeper Sarah as a fielding coach, however, on a short-term basis. 

The ECB confirmed the move on Wednesday as the director of cricket, Rob Key, said that the signing has been done on a temporary basis. Carl Hopkinson, the side fielding coach has been with the Mumbai Indians for his IPL commitment.

And for that, Taylor will take his role for the upcoming home Test series against New Zealand. Speaking to the media, Key said,

"I just think she’s one of the best in the business at what she does. She’s been outstanding, and she’s worked a lot with Andrew Flintoff and Ed Barney (performance director). They can’t speak highly enough of her. So from what we can see, she’s one of the best in the business."

He added,

“We’ve been thoroughly, unbelievably impressed with (Taylor) and the way that she goes about her business. Carl Hopkinson, as is the nature of the cricket world that we have at the moment, he’s working with the Mumbai Indians. He has a lot of stuff that he does for them, so we’ll still use him at some point, just not for this series."

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Sarah Taylor, who represented England in 226 international matches is not new to coaching men's teams. In 2021, she made history becoming the first female coach in a men's professional team by signing a deal with Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10 League. 

She then became the first female coach in men's county cricket when she joined Sussex's men's squad in 2021. She worked with the Manchester Originals in The Hundred and trained the junior England men's team, the England Lions, from 2024 to 2024 under Andrew Flintoff. 

Apart from that, former Irish cricketer Catherine Dalton joined the Multan Sultans as the first female fast bowling coach in the PSL in 2024. In the same year, Multan Sultan also signed the former England World Cup-winning spinner, Alex Hartley, as the specialist spin-bowling coach.