London [UK], May 15 (ANI): The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) on Thursday announced the appointment of former New Zealand pacer Tim Southee as the specialist skills consultant for the England men's teams on a short-term basis.

ECB stated on Thursday in a statement, 'Former New Zealand international Tim Southee has joined the ECB as a specialist skills consultant for the England men's teams on a short-term basis.'

Southee, 36, who retired from international cricket in December as New Zealand's all-time leading wicket-taker, will support England's squads across all formats through to the conclusion of the Test series against India, which will kickstart from June 20 with the first Test at Headingley.

With his vast experience of playing in a wide range of conditions around the world and across all formats, he brings valuable insight and knowledge to the players.

Following his consultancy stint, he will resume playing duties in The Hundred for Birmingham Phoenix.

Southee will link up with the squad ahead of England's opening fixture of the international summer - the one-off Test against Zimbabwe - which gets underway at Trent Bridge next Thursday.

After the home series against England last year, Southee walked away from the game with 776 international wickets, the most by any Kiwi bowler across all formats. Southee secured 391 Test wickets, the second-most by any NZ bowler, behind Richard Hadlee (431 scalps).

He is the leading wicket-taker in T20Is with 164 wickets, the most by any bowler. With 221 ODI wickets, he is also the third-highest wicket-taker in ODIs for the Kiwis, behind Kyle Mills (240 wickets) and Daniel Vettori (297 wickets).

He was also a capable lower-order batter, with 3,288 runs in 394 matches at an average of 14.11, with eight fifties. Most of these runs came in Tests, making 2,245 runs at an average of 15.48, with seven fifties. His tally of 98 sixes in Tests is the fourth-highest by any Test cricketer. (ANI)