No quick fix to England’s batting woes: Bayliss

Wednesday, 2 November 2016 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: England coach Trevor Bayliss knows there is no quick fix to his side’s batting problems against spin but hopes that their recent exposure to conditions in Bangladesh will help them in a five-test series against India, starting next week.

After a narrow win in the opening test against Bangladesh in Chittagong, England suffered an astonishing collapse on the third day of the second match at Dhaka, losing 10 wickets in a single session in their second innings to be all out for 164.

Next up for Alastair Cook’s men is a testing series in India, starting on 9 November, on spin-friendly pitches similar to those England struggled with against Bangladesh.

“I think, from a batting point of view, there’s been some good signs during this series,” Bayliss told Sky Sports. “We don’t come across those types of wickets very often at all, or at all.”

“The only thing you can do is experience it more often. There’s no quick fix but as we saw, there were batters in the two tests that were able to bat for a period of time and score runs.”

“If they can do it once they’ve got it in them but it’s just about doing it more often and more consistently and learning from those innings.”

In four innings in Bangladesh, Joe Root’s average of 24.50 was the highest of England’s top five in the order, with Cook, Ben Duckett and Moeen Ali all averaging in the low 20s.

Gary Ballance could muster only 24 runs in total, recording single-digit scores, and the 26-year-old’s position at four in the order would come up for discussion, according to Bayliss.

“I’m sure that will be one of the things we discuss,” said the 53-year-old. “It was one of the things we discussed before the series started, the different options we have available to us going forward, so that we weren’t surprised by anything.

“There will be a number of players that we will be discussing and what we might think is our best and strongest team.”