Bayliss faces biggest test to eclipse the relentless machine
Retaining Ashes will topple feat of Flower’s No1-ranked team that won 2010-11 series AUSTRALIA ENGLAND THE GABBA, MIDNIGHT
AS a proud Australian, Nathan Lyon might reflect that a 5-0 whitewash would do as much damage to one of his compatriots as it would to any England player.
Trevor Bayliss, who was born and raised in New South Wales, has been England coach since 2015, and though he has overseen a sharp improvement in the team’s white-ball cricket, he has not been able to effect similar change in the Test arena. But over the next six weeks, Bayliss can secure his legacy — starting here at The Gabba tonight, where Australia have not lost a Test since 1988.
Bayliss stands on the brink of his most demanding cricketing challenge, in front of his fellow countrymen. If something the Flower side never managed, but winning in Australia would eclipse that.
Can Bayliss do it? The group of players he has is inferior to the one guided by Flower in 2010-11, with less experience and fewer match-winners. But that will count for little if England are beaten badly and Bayliss finds himself in the firing line.
Heavy Ashes defeats usually lead to significant change. After England were whitewashed in 2 0 1 3 - 14 , Ke v i n Pietersen, Graeme Swann and Tim Bresnan never played Test cricket again, while Matt Prior and Jonathan Trott won just seven more caps between them. Significantly, Flower also departed in the weeks after the debacle.
While nobody is suggesting that Bayliss should go if England are thrashed, it would place great scrutiny on his position, notwithstanding England’s superb form in one-day and Twenty20 cricket. Bayliss was hired because of the excellent work he had done with Sri Lanka’s one-day sides, with the 2019 World Cup — hosted in England — at the forefront of ECB minds.
But England are still defined by their achievements in Ashes cricket, regardless of the move towards the white-ball game and the introduction of an eight-team, cit y-based Twent y20 competition from 2020. The world may be changing but not that quickly. These players — and coaches — will still be remembered chiefly for their performances against Australia. It is up to Bayliss to ensure they rise to the challenge.
“In terms of our preparation and how we’ll be ready, we have gone about it in a really good way,” said Joe Root, the England captain.
“We have dealt with the external noise exceptionally well as a group of players and I am proud of the lads for how they have gone about things.
“Of course we’ll probably get a good atmosphere within the ground, there might be a bit of noise from the crowd and stuff but I see us as absolutely ready to go.
“There’ll be a few nerves flying around underneath the surface but on the whole there is a really calm atmosphere within the dressing room.
“That’s a really good place for us to be as a side. That’s where we get the best out of each other and it’s a good way to enter this series. We’ve just tried to be normal, tried to be ourselves and
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Tests to enjoy the trip. We’ve had a good time, done some good stuff away from cricket and when we’ve been on the field we’ve put in some good performances, so it’s about replicating those performances now in the Test matches and playing to our potential.”
Root’s description of the relaxed camp would delight Bayliss because this is his forte. The 54-year-old is not a micro-manager such as Flower or Peter Moores, who was sacked in May 2015 to make way for Bayliss. He prefers to stay in the background and allow players to work things out for themselves.
Such a stance, however, is sometimes neither practical nor possible. What if England cannot handle the pace of Mitchell Starc or Pat Cummins and turn to Bayliss?
The coach likes to interfere as little as possible with the team but sometimes intervention is necessary for improvement. With three Ashes newcomers — Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Dawid Malan — in the top six, Bayliss may find he has to be involved more closely than he likes.
Bayliss’s ability to relieve pressure will be vital during such an intense contest yet if his team cannot deliver the results, this counts for nothing. Can Bayliss deliver the goods?