England vs South Africa 2017 – Trevor Bayliss Backs Joe Root To Succeed As Captain
Jun 30, 2017 at 11:26 AM
As England take on a depleted South African lineup at home for a four-match Test series, all eyes will be on England’s new captain, Joe Root. The home series against South Africa will be Root’s first assignment as captain and in all, England’s first Test since mid-December. The team last played a Test way back during their tour of India, which ended in a loss at Chennai.
Since then, Alastair Cook has given up captaincy and is enjoying playing solely as a batsman. If recent scores in the domestic circuit are anything to go by, Cook is getting back to his supreme best. Ahead of the series, England coach Trevor Bayliss fully backed Root to succeed as the captain and mentioned his positivity as a distinguishing factor.
“Certainly the way Rooty goes about his cricket, he’s nice and positive the way he bats, I suspect the way he will captain the team will be similar,” Bayliss said. “We’ve had a few short chats over the last month or so, about the way Rooty wants to attack the game. I suspect we will go a bit deeper into the South African side over the next couple of days.”
“My way of operating is the captain’s the one in charge. It’s a bit old-school, but that’s what I believe,” Bayliss said. “They are the ones playing the game. They are the ones who’ve got to have a say in how the game moves forward. “To all the captains who’ve captained England since I’ve been here, I’ll give them 100 percent backing, if they have got a good argument for what they want do, whether it’s selection, field placement, bowling changes. If they haven’t got a good argument for something, that’s where I might come up with a few ideas myself.”
Bayliss also mentioned that playing without the burden of captaincy would surely improve Alastair Cook’s batting.
“It’s great that, after giving away the captaincy, he’s still got that hunger to score runs,” Bayliss said. “As an ex-England captain, it will be a bit of a juggling act, but he and Rooty get on very well. Cooky is very well respected in the team and if he thinks something needs to be said, I’m sure he will say it.”
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