Ashes 2017/18: Trevor Bayliss Raises Concern About Substandard Preparation
Jan 13, 2019 at 4:22 PM
England head coach Trevor Bayliss has called on Cricket Australia (CA) and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to ensure a better standard of preparation for both the teams before an Ashes tour.
Bayliss has raised his concern for some time now that he would like his team to face some tough challenges in the preliminary matches. However, he also revealed that Australia also faces the same problem when they are touring England.
Reportedly, Bayliss has already spoken to the director of England cricket Andrew Strauss to include first-class matches against A team (the national second XI) before the start of the first Test in the Ashes schedule.
He also added that he would speak about the same with Strauss’s counterpart from Australia Pat Howard recently.
“Both Australia and England should be getting together and having at least one match against the A team before each series. I’ve already mentioned it to Strauss, and I will mention it to Pat Howard when I see him too,” Bayliss stated.
While CA XI, against whom England played their last warm-up match in Townsville, just had one centurion in the form of Nick Larkin at the start of the game, and by the time it ended, two more young Australians have registered their first hundreds.
As England struggle to pick up wickets in the first days play, it became tough to sustain the argument that the opposition was not as strong as it appeared before the start of the match.
However, in reality, it was an unusually slow flat track which is unlikely to be replicated during the Ashes series. And while the England team is yet to make any public complaint about the practice matches the CA provided them, there is a sense that both the pitch and the opposition until now have left them facing a major change of quality. And specifically, pace – when they arrive at the Gabba for the first Ashes Test.
England team is scheduled to train in the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday before the first Test starting on Friday. Often teams alternate between morning and afternoon session on consecutive days – giving them slightly less time to rest before the match.
“That was a bone of contention. The home team makes the program, and that’s just the way it is. We will take it on the chin and get on with it,” a confident Bayliss signed off.
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