Monitoring Desk
LONDON: You might think, after four years as England coach, that Trevor Bayliss might be inured to England’s occasional – and, perhaps, not so occasional – propensity for a batting collapse.
But, seeing him at the team hotel on the morning after the night – okay, the early afternoon – before is to see a man clearly struggling to come to terms with events. He uses words such as “embarrassed” and admits he “can’t get my head around” the disparity in quality between England’s performances. For them to suffer the largest defeat, in terms of how long it took West Indies to knock off the target, in their ODI history on Bayliss’ watch clearly hurts.
It wasn’t just the extent of the defeat, though. It was the fact that it came in the final ODI before England were obliged to select their World Cup squad. Despite all the tours and training and faith in the players, it seems the England team retain a propensity, when confronted by conditions outside their comfort zone, to collapse in spectacular fashion. A difficulty in adapting to conditions is clearly a recurring problem.
And while Bayliss admitted the performance – perhaps it would be more accurate to call it the lack of performance? – could be the “wake-up call” his side required, he also said that some of the current players have had every opportunity to nail down their places and failed to do so.
As a consequence, Jofra Archer will be given an opportunity to show what he can do during the ODIs against Ireland and Pakistan despite having just 14 List A appearances to his name. He would appear to have every chance of winning a World Cup spot.
“Was it the worst yet?” Bayliss said of defeat in St Lucia. “I think it was. To lose in such a fashion… I think they [the players] were embarrassed.
“We talk all the time about playing smart cricket but, quite simply, we didn’t play smart cricket. We kept making the same mistakes.
“Whether it’s a bit of overconfidence – have we gone into the match with, not a blasé attitude, but an overconfident attitude where they go out and play their natural games and think it’ll just happen? Batting can’t be easy and free flowing all the time. And it’s happened a few times.”
Bayliss hopes the game will prove to be something of a watershed moment. Straight afterwards, the team held a long meeting in the dressing room where they reflected on their failings and, he believes, understood where they went wrong.
“I didn’t have to say very much,” he said. “Eoin Morgan started the conversation and three or four of the most experienced players in the team led it. They were on the money.
“They were talking about getting to 220-230 on that pitch. That conversation was going on out in the middle and in the dressing room. But we didn’t put it into play.
“You’re not going to score 400 on a wicket like that but you make high 200s, 300, 350 and it’s enough to win games on those wickets. Yesterday we just didn’t. Two hundred and we would have been right in the game.
“If it doesn’t sink in after this one – so close to the World Cup – then there’s something wrong. I’d like to think that, after their chat yesterday in the changing room, it will sink in.”
