Patient Bayliss’ calm at the helm finally reaping Test reward

ODI blueprint behind long-format turnaround Head coach says he is unlikely to extend stay

Only six months ago, some in the media were calling for Trevor Bayliss’s head after England had lost the first Test at Lord’s against Pakistan, yet he is now politely fielding questions about whether he would like to extend his contract as England’s head coach beyond September 2019 and the Ashes, without pointing out the irony.

Bayliss has presided over England’s volte-face in one-day cricket, where they have gone from being the laughing stock of the 2015 World Cup to No1 in the rankings and favourites for next summer’s edition in England, and now he is presiding over the Test team’s renaissance. After losing six consecutive Tests last winter in the Antipodes, they have – since that defeat at Lord’s – won seven of their past eight, without his telling us: “I told you so.”

It is a quiet, kind and encouraging hand that Bayliss places on the tiller in any format. He is the least prescriptive of the coaches England have had: Micky Stewart, Keith Fletcher, Ray Illingworth, David Lloyd, Duncan Fletcher, Peter Moores (twice) and Andy Flower.

The benign uncle, he raises his eyes in despair when his charges are caught having a late night out, but never shouts or loses his belief that they will grow up.

So lacking in ego is Bayliss that he has said publicly how it is better for the players to problem-solve by talking among themselves than by being told what to do by a coach.

This may stem from the fact that he never played Test cricket – he remarked over a media dinner in Townsville before the most recent Ashes series that he “was nowhere near a Baggy Green” – but he was such a fine attacking batsman and cover fielder for New South Wales that he would have represented Australia A if there had been a second XI. Equally, he must recognise the sport is changing so rapidly that coaches, while they have some eternal verities to point out, should have less and less input.

Over the years he has told the media that he is “pretty honest – well, very honest” (at his inaugural press conference in 2015); he is “always nervous” when he watches his team; and he has “a terrible memory” (after England’s victory in Kandy sealed the series win).

At heart he is a straightforward outback Aussie who loves his job of coaching cricket, whose favourite pastime is watching cricket and who, on the rare occasions he gets home to Sydney, unwinds by throwing balls to his son in the garden.

His nervousness must have been sorely tried in the first session of this series, in Galle, when England’s top-order batsmen went giddy, before four players who are not white-ball specialists – Rory Burns, Keaton Jennings, Ben Foakes and Sam Curran – had a sedative effect.

“I think the job that Burns and Foakes have done in the two Tests they’ve been here – it’s looks like they’re playing their 30th or 40th Tests. Their calmness has been outstanding,” Bayliss said.

“The whole time we’ve spoken about being positive and playing your own game in that positive manner. For example, I thought Jennings and Foakes down in Galle – their innings were fantastically positive. We’ve now got those two plus Burns in the team – three guys who probably haven’t quite got the shots of some of the other guys in the team, and to me that’s a pretty good combination.

“You’ve got guys who can put pressure on, you’ve got guys who can bat around them as well. I think we’ve come upon two or three guys who have a good possibility of having long careers for England.”

On the convergence of the Test and ODI teams, or the former catching up with the latter, Bayliss said: “It’s starting to feel a good feel, just like that one-day team, and when there’s a good feel around the team, the environment to actually learn and get better is enhanced.

“It’s a point we’ve been trying to get to and, with the two or three extra guys we’ve got in the team who appear to have fitted into that system very effectively and can obviously play, what they’ve shown in a couple of matches is a positive sign for the future. But let’s not go overboard.”

England’s strategy of sweeping in the second Test at Kandy is evidence of his light hand on the tiller. “It was a surprise. No one sat down and said, ‘Look, we’ve got to sweep or play straight.’ Look, if you were told to play across the line years ago you’d have got a clip behind the ear.

“It just seemed that on this wicket the sweep shot was the shot to go to, actually easier than the straight bat.

“We’ve had criticism at times for the way we’ve approached the game, but one thing that never gets spoken about is the skill of these guys to go out and play in that fashion and score 600-plus [in two innings] on that type of wicket. That was fantastic.”

So will he stay on? “I’ve always been of the opinion, even before I started the England job, that four to five years is a good life for a coach with one team.

“Hopefully you take it forward and then it’s up to a new voice, maybe someone of a different direction, to take the team forward. I’ve always been of that opinion and that’s not going to change.”