ECB will switch its focus to Test championship after Bayliss exit
Improvement in red-ball cricket now the priority as search begins for new coach, writes Nick Hoult
Trevor Bayliss will make a convenient token scapegoat for the failure to regain the Ashes. England’s head coach leaves his post at the end of the month, celebrated as a World Cup winner but loser of two Ashes series.
Defeats against Australia usually bring about change, but it is unlikely there will be much bloodletting, rather a shift towards reaffirming Test cricket as England’s main priority and the appointment of a replacement for Bayliss.
Joe Root’s job as captain remains safe as long as England do not suffer an absolute meltdown at the Oval this week, or he himself decides it is time to move on. He may come to the conclusion he is not cut out for captaincy and the realisation he will not emulate Michael Vaughan, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook in beating Australia may be too much to bear.
Root will also worry that captaincy is sucking the energy out of his batting, but he is a dutiful man, and knows there is no real alternative candidate. He may feel the appointment of a new coach will give him a chance to reinvent the side and make some personnel changes.
Ed Smith, the national selector, was widely praised last year for his innovative decision-making, but his position will come under scrutiny if England’s Test form does not improve in the winter.
There has been a lot of tinkering this year, summed up by Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali riding up and down the batting order, Jos Buttler’s role changing from luxury player to regular middle-order batsman back to luxury player again, and throwing Jason Roy in at the deep end against Australia instead of blooding him in the Caribbean in March when England selected Keaton Jennings.
Ashley Giles, team director since the start of the year, has already signalled that winning the World Test Championship in 2021 will replace the World Cup as England’s main priority and that will shape the list of central contracts
announced on Friday week as well as the identity of the new coach. Giles is hoping to persuade counties to play on flatter pitches, create a group of young fast bowlers on incremental contracts in order to control workloads, and have a greater say in their development, with one eye on competing in Australia in two years’ time. He will incentivise players to play red-ball cricket by making Test contracts more lucrative, and is likely to cut the amount of time players are allowed to appear in T20 leagues.
Crucially, the emphasis on Test cricket will play a large part in the identification of a new head coach to replace Bayliss. Chris Silverwood and Graham Thorpe,
Giles wants greater say on player development with an eye on Australia in two years’ time
members of Bayliss’s backroom team, are interested in the role and external candidates include Graham Ford, the former Sri Lanka coach who was highly regarded when he worked for Surrey, and Andrew Mcdonald, the coach of Victoria. Mcdonald would be a bold and exciting appointment at the age of just 38 and met with Giles while he was in England during the Edgbaston Test. But he is highly rated in Australia and they will not want to lose an ambitious young coach to England. He may also feel it is too soon to take on an international role and is committed to running the Edgbaston Hundred franchise next season.
Root is a struggling captain who needs help from a strong coach. He does not need a drill sergeant in charge, just a firmer guiding hand and someone with a strong personality willing to take on battles on behalf of the captain, leaving him to concentrate on tactics and batting. Bayliss was appointed based on his track record in one-day cricket and it reaped huge dividends on July 14 when England won the World Cup. Bayliss worked brilliantly with Eoin Morgan, allowing the captain to run the show completely.
Morgan is blessed with gifted cricketers who are naturals in the one-day format. England are not so fortunate in Test cricket. Identifying those Test players is the next job for Smith.
Dominic Sibley (Warwickshire) and Zak Crawley (Kent) are young openers who will not have to wait much longer for an opportunity. Sam Curran’s time will come again, while Ollie Pope will soon restart a Test career. Ben Foakes is the best wicketkeeper in the country and a decision will have to be made over whether Bairstow is a keeper, a batsman or neither for the long term, and Buttler is no longer a viable wicketkeeper-batsman in Test cricket. They need more solidity. England have spent the past two years trying to turn too many one-day players into Test cricketers. It has not worked and now is the time for new starts.