England win but batting collapses remain the number one concern

Trevor Bayliss admits England’s habit of batting collapses remains a “concern” as the Ashes loom ever nearer.

The England coach’s debrief after the tourists completed a 192-run win over a Cricket Australia XI in Adelaide did not shy away from more evidence of familiar frailties.

Collapses have been an unhappy theme regularly revisited, occasionally even in victory – as was the case in the pink-ball trial match which finished on Saturday.

England lost their last five first-innings wickets for 22 runs and then seven for 45 – including four for three – at their second attempt.

They still had too much ammunition with the ball, against callow opponents they will face again in Townsville this week, and runs in the bank too thanks to opener Mark Stoneman’s back-toback half-centuries and 50s by Dawid Malan, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow.

Even so, with the first Test just 11 days away, Bayliss acknowledges an ongoing issue.

“It’s been a concern for us for a little while,” said the Australian. “We have games like that, where we lose wickets like that. It’s not for want of trying. They realise they have got to do better and they are working hard.”

He has an associated gripe too, over England’s lack of individual hundreds. In two matches, Stoneman, pictured, has passed 50 in each of his three innings – and all the specialist batsmen, apart from record national runscorer Alastair Cook, have done so at least once.

“It would be great if we could have some hundreds, that’s for sure,” Bayliss said, while also citing the more positive angle that those who set out for Australia with most questions to answer have so far made most of the runs. “Our more inexperienced batters have actually spent some time in the middle.

“Before the series, they were the ones under pressure the most because they don’t have a great deal of experience in Australian conditions.”

Still, three figures are what the coach wants to see against his batsmen’s names.

“The number one thing for us is that 60s are not enough – we need 160s,” he said.

“That’s definitely what we will need throughout this Test series.”