Former England captain Nasser Hussain believes Chris Silverwood will have to take a few tough calls if he is to oversee a successful tenure as three lions' newly appointed head coach. 

Silverwood was on Monday (October 7) promoted to the head coach position by ECB having long been the team's bowling coach who enjoys nice repute amidst the current group of players. 

"When you're bowling coach, you have to be friends - especially with bowlers, who love someone to put an arm around them,” Hussain wrote for Sky Sports.

"Silverwood would definitely have been a 'softly, softly' sort, and there's a massive difference between being a friendly bowling coach and being the main man - picking and choosing the times when you need to get hard and tough with your group of players, especially in the Test arena where England have been under-performing."

"That will be a challenge for him. There is no such thing as a popular coach or a popular captain. You're there to make tough decisions and be tough with your team," Hussain added on his ex-teammate Silverwood, who played six Tests and seven ODIs for England between 1996 and 2002. 

"At the moment he is popular, but if he wants to do a good job, he'll have to upset a few as well. I know this is not that important but, when I played with him, he was a very, very likeable, down to earth, simple lad, who realised that playing for England was an absolute dream."

"I'm very pleased for him. He has lived that dream as a player and he will now be pinching himself that he is the England coach."

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Silverwood has previously guided Essex towards promotion to Division 1 in the county championship as the club's head coach. But Hussain reckons what really went in favour of the 44-year-old is the trust he has been able to built in director of cricket Ashley Giles for himself. 

"I'd say he's a safe pair of hands. When one or two others ruled themselves out, I think Ashley Giles went for someone he knows and trusts," wrote Hussain. 

"He's someone who seems to ask the right questions, at the right time. He's that type of coach - he's not an in-your-face type; he's very popular in the England dressing room, already in there with the players."

"He knows the time to say things and not say things. I'm talking bowlers here, but he puts little ideas into their minds and makes it seem like it was almost their idea; his man-management is absolutely first class."