England might have won the series against South Africa but the struggles of the top-order have made head coach Trevor Bayliss a worried man.
England moved to the third in the Test rankings after winning the last Test at Old Trafford by 177 runs on Monday (August 7). The 3-1 series win is England’s first win against the Proteas at home since 1998 and also their first Test series win since the Sri Lanka series last summer.
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Since then, they drew against Pakistan, Bangladesh before being thrashed 4-0 by India – a run that forced Alastair Cook to step down from captaincy earlier this year. And while the result would surely delight Bayliss, he accepted that the search for an opening partner for Cook goes on.
“I’d still like to see us score more runs at the top of the order,” said Bayliss at the post-match conference. “We are still looking for guys to put their hands up there. That’s no secret. We’re not papering over the cracks. We are still looking for those guys to prove their worth at this level. Those guys know they have things to work on. Hopefully, not before too long, we do see some big scores from those guys.”
Two newcomers – Dawid Malan and Tom Westley – have also not been able to put convincing performances. While Westley managed to score 122 runs in the two matches, Malan struggled throughout and could score only 35 runs in four innings.
But the biggest worry will be Keaton Jennings’ form. The left-handed batsman, who started his career with a stunning century in India last year, scored only 127 runs in the four Tests even after getting several reprieves. Bayliss did not mince his words when talking about the under-pressure opener and said that the southpaw would be disappointed with his show.
“Keaton will be disappointed with the way he went,” England’s head coach said. “He batted on some very tough wickets against a top quality seam attack. It was tough and he’s got some things to work on. He knows that. If he works hard enough and backs his ability, there’s no reason why he can’t make a go of it.”
While refrained from giving a clear answer on whether Jennings would be available for the West Indies series starting later this month, he hinted that the batsman had a good chance of getting picked up for the Ashes tour.
“He’s still an option to go to Australia,” Bayliss said. “I’d be surprised if we don’t take more than a couple of openers. He’s working hard in the nets and that’s as much as you can do. If he works hard enough and backs his ability then there’s no reason he can’t make a go of it.”
Bayliss further expressed his delight over England finally winning the final game of the series for the first time since 2014.
“We’ve been a bit up and down with our performances, we win one we lose one,” he said. “It was good to win the last match of a series. That’s how we want to finish series, winning the last one and winning it well.”