Bayliss heartened by England dejection
Trevor Bayliss was heartened by England’s dejection in the wake of their surprise fivewicket second Test loss to the West Indies and is counting on a response in the Lord’s decider.
England ran afoul of a rejuvenated Windies, who chased down 322 on a tense final day, following Joe Root declaring England’s second innings late on the penultimate dayd.
But Bayliss backed the England skipper to continue with a positive mindset ahead of next week’s Lord’s finale.
Bayliss said of his players: “They were hurting and to me that’s a good thing.
“If the team is hurting after a loss, it means something to them. I’m sure they will be fully focused and ready to put things right in the next Test.
“I hope the result doesn’t change the way (Root) thinks about the game. In that situation, more times than not, we’ll win more than we lose. “I’d like to see the same sort of thought process happening in the future. “I think there are a few guys in the team behind him that were fully supportive-everyonewasfully supportive - of his declaration and I’m sure they’ll be backing him up and suggesting in the future if we need to declare I’m sure they’ll give him a helping hand.”
In pinpointing the key factors for their second defeat in six Tests under Root, Bayliss accepted England had fallen short of their standards.
He said: “Batting was probably a little more difficult than it originally looked, although it was still a decent wicket. To a certain degree, the (batsmen) learned their lesson from the first innings. I thought they showed a lot of character.
“When we bowled, they were a little bit two sides of the wicket and a little bit short.
“We seemed to be fairly frustrated throughout that first bowling innings and I think that held over into the second innings.
“It looked like we were under a bit of pressure and got frustrated when it wasn’t quite happening for us.
“That doesn’t happen all that often. But it happens in the game of cricket every now and again and it happened on this occasion.”