Trevor Bayliss is not known to be an Eric Morecambe fan but when asked about England’s lineup for the third Ashes Test, the coach essentially claimed they are playing all the notes, just not necessarily in the right order.
“We think we’ve got the best seven batters available to us at the moment,” said Bayliss before training on Tuesday. “Whether we can change it round and make that any better I’m not sure but we’ll certainly have a discussion about it.”
Jason Roy looks set to continue to opener for one more Test and judging by his aggressive approach in the nets two days out from a match England cannot afford to lose, the right-hander is not going to die wondering. But with one half-century from six Test innings – and then from No 3 when Jack Leach performed his nightwatchman heroics against Ireland – there are growing concerns over his suitability against the new ball.
Bayliss appears to be share these too. “Personally, I think he probably is suited to the middle order but we’ve selected him in the top of the order because of his form in the one-day team. It hasn’t worked yet but he come easily come out and blast a quick hundred. Long term, he’s more middle order. He’d feel more comfortable there but he’s doing a job for the team at the moment.”
Roy is not yet fighting for his place, rather there appears to be a debate behind the scenes as to whether he and Joe Denly, at No 4, should swap around. As such, it is not a stretch to that this confusion is sub-optimal midway through an Ashes series.
The head scratching goes beyond this pair too. Joe Root volunteered to move to No 3 for this series despite a preference to bat one lower, while England are also trying to work out the best combination for Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow.
Stokes and Buttler switched spots in the second innings at Lord’s, sharing a 90-run partnership that resulted in the former kicking on for his first Test century in nearly two years from No 5. Jonny Bairstow also made scores of 52 and 30 in the match from his preferred No 7 spot. Yet England are still thinking about shuffling this around again, with Stokes staying put and Buttler possibly moving down to play as a specialist batsman at No 7 again, the position he was originally handed on his return to the team last year.
Asked about all these various combinations, Bayliss said: “It’s something we have to look at. Each individual has to be happy with that as well. [But] there might come a time when we have to put a foot down and say no, this is what’s happening. Like it or lump it.”
Much depends on the workloads of Stokes and Bairstow, who have additional duties with the ball and the gloves respectively. The former’s mid-game promotion owed much to bowling only eight overs in Australia’s innings too, with Jofra Archer’s incredible stamina allowed him to send down 29.
Whether Archer’s body can be pushed so hard again remains to be seen but there is little doubting the bite he has brought to the attack, with Bayliss comparing it to when England batsmen in the past had to face Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Dennis Lillee or Jeff Thomson.
Despite this, Bayliss was as concerned as any in the ground when Steve Smith was knocked over by Archer’s short-ball at Lord’s, having been the coach of New South Wales when South Australia’s Philip Hughes suffered a fatal blow to the neck during a Sheffield Shield match in 2014.
Bayliss said: “I went up to their medical room to check on Smith when he came off. It’s something you never like to see and certainly brought flashbacks from that game a few years ago when Hughesy got hit.
“When he fell to the ground just for that split second it was fairly similar to what happened. There was a little bit of movement early on and it didn’t him too long to get up. You look to the reaction of those around him and could see there was a different reaction compared to that day a few years ago.”