AUSSIE CHEATS WILL TAKE IT ON THE CHIN
England slide down to FIFTH in the Test rankings and Bayliss is now in charge of a country that’s forgotten how to bat
ENGLAND have dropped to fifth in the world Test rankings and the longrunning slide into mediocrity is likely to continue.
Trevor Bayliss is starting to sound like a broken record, asking for county batsmen to put their hands up for selection.
Mark Stoneman and James Vince are the men most at risk of the axe, but they are not alone.
Bayliss reckons the players to replace them are no better – and he is right.
The second-string Lions had a horrible red-ball winter with the bat in the Caribbean with no one averaging more than 27 across three unofficial ‘Tests’.
So when asked whether the current line-up would start the first Test against Pakistan, Bayliss admitted: “That’s more than likely. I think what they’ve all shown over this winter is that they are good players and they’ve scored some runs against quality opposition bowlers.
“But what we need from them is to be doing it more often. They’re averaging high 20s, we need them to get that up and hopefully put another 20 on that.
“I guess this is a call-out to the guys in county cricket, the first five or six matches of the county season are vital.”
Bayliss has put the “call-out” before and over the last two years England have selected several players as Test batsmen who have failed to register three figures with levels of output that can be described as average at best.
Batters such as Stoneman, Vince, Haseeb Hameed, Ben Duckett, Tom Westley, Gary Ballance, Nick Compton, Alex Hales, and Jos Buttler have all flattered to deceive.
It has left Bayliss wringing his hands, wondering why players with ability have found life so difficult at the very highest level.
He added: “Who Mat Pts 1 India ................... 44 121 2 South Africa ... 39 115 3 Australia......... 40 104 4 New Zealand...35 100 5 England........... 49 99 6 Sri Lanka........ 46 95 7 Pakistan.......... 34 88 8 West Indies ..... 36 72 9 Bangladesh..... 26 71 10 Zimbabwe....... 14 1 do we replace the current guys with? Look, we’ve got some very good players in the team and I’m not sure there’s any better players not in the team.
“We need those guys on the cusp of the squad to be scoring plenty of runs in county cricket, forcing their way in and putting pressure on the guys in the team.
“We’ve got 15 or 16 guys trying to fit into the 11 in 50-over cricket and we’ve probably got three or four positions in the Test team still trying to make their way.”
Bayliss has five Test series left before he leaves as coach and while so much is riding on success in the World Cup next year, perhaps his greatest legacy would be to leave the Test batting line-up in better shape than when he found it. BALL-TAMPERING cheats Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft will not appeal against their hefty punishments for shaming a nation.
Aussie captain Smith was banned by his board for a year, and opening batsman Bancroft for nine months, for their complicity in using sandpaper to aid reverse swing during the Test series in South Africa.
Vice-captain David Warner (above) has yet to announce whether he will challenge his 12-month ban. Smith said on social media: “I won’t be challenging the sanctions.”