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The next 10 days’ cricket will reveal a great deal about whether Trevor Bayliss is still the right man to coach England’s Test team.
Bayliss faced questions about his future after the Perth Test, which Australia won to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match Ashes series.
He insisted that he was best-placed to make England stronger but since then, one word has haunted England as they look towards the Boxing Day Test: whitewash.
Four years ago, England’s implosion at Melbourne and Sydney effectively sealed the fate of Andy Flower as coach. Despite a hugely successful stint, during which England won three Ashes series and a World Twenty20 as well as reaching the top of the ICC Test rankings, it was clear during the final dark days of that 2013-14 campaign that something was broken. If England were to rise again, Flower could not continue, and he duly departed soon after the team returned home.
Another 5-0 hammering in Australia would surely make Bayliss’s position hugely vulnerable, at least as red-ball coach. As well as for his white-ball success, Bayliss was hired for his laid-back style, but there are times when a coach must make an active impact, too. Can Bayliss do this with England over Christmas and New Year?
If he is helpless to stop Australian momentum, his credentials would be severely damaged, especially as a whitewash would mean nine successive Test defeats for England Down Under. Bayliss must take credit for England’s rapid improvement in limited-overs cricket during the past two years but in the Test arena, they look a side in decline, in need of new direction.
Bayliss’ method after the innings defeat at the WACA earlier this week was to focus his players’ minds on one of the biggest events in cricket — a full house at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Boxing Day, which is something every young player wishes to experience.
“After we lost in Perth and Trevor and Joe Root had their chats with us, Trevor said: ‘We’ve got 90,000 people watching us on Boxing Day and we need to stand up and show how good we are’,” revealed batsman Dawid Malan. “That was when it hit home that we would be playing in front of such a big crowd and that we would have to perform. It’s very exciting for us.”
It is important to say that Bayliss was not dealt a handful of aces before this tour. England’s best player, Ben Stokes, was not available following an incident outside a nightclub in Bristol on September 25, while the poor form of Alastair Cook at the top of the order could not have happened at a worse time. Stuart Broad has taken only five wickets in three Tests.
England ratings | Ashes series 2017/18
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Yet Bayliss has a thorough knowledge of Australian conditions and is one of the England selectors. He must have known that pace bowling would be a key factor in this series, so when both Mark Wood and Steven Finn were unable to take their places in the squad, why did he not send for Liam Plunkett? Even though Plunkett played only twice for Yorkshire in the Championship last summer, would it not have been handy to have at least one bowler in the squad capable of reaching the magic 90mph mark? If there were doubts about Plunkett’s long-term fitness for Test cricket, why not simply use him in short, sharp spells? He need not have played the pink-ball Test at Adelaide, where England would surely have won had they made better use of the new ball on the first day.
The suspicion remains that Bayliss is simply too passive. That can be helpful in defusing tension and encouraging players to express themselves; less so when a team are struggling and look to their coach for guidance.
Root is just 10 Tests into his stint as captain and after Perth, looked to be feeling the strain. The next two Tests are the chance for Bayliss to take the lead. If he cannot do so, then what is the point of his role?
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