England coach Trevor Bayliss has admitted that his side’s batting let him down after the fourth test against Pakistan. England had to post a massive score in their second innings to have any hopes of saving the game. But none of the England batsmen stepped up to the task and barring the exception of wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow, it was a shambolic tale. In what could have been a great series win, it ended as a 2-2 draw, with people praising Pakistan’s superior bowling effort.
The likes of Alex Hales, James Vince, and Gary Ballance, were all liabilities as their combined aggregate runs were even lower than the tally of Joe Root. With just two competent batsmen in the top and middle order in the form of Alastair Cook and Joe Root, the batting was bound to suffer. Bayliss looked up to this, and hinted that promising batsmen from the county circuit would be tried.
“There’s a month to go in the county season and there’s a challenge out there for some of those other guys to put their hand up and keep scoring runs,” said Bayliss. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone crying out to be selected above anyone else. There’s a number of guys we’ve seen score some runs earlier this season under a bit of scrutiny when their names are mentioned about the possibility of getting into the team. Some of them have dropped off.”
Bayliss specifically was critical about Alex Hales and James Vince and expected them to do better. “Hales and Vince have definitely had a decent run at it.,” Bayliss said. “We’re still looking for consistent contributions from some of the middle order. We’re due to meet in about the second week of September to select the Test and ODI squads for those winter series and there will be some tough decisions to be made.”
Contemplating about moving in form batsmen up the order, Bayliss added, “We did give Moeen a go in the UAE a lot higher than the middle order and it didn’t quite work. But that’s the issue- they score so many runs at five, six and seven, do you risk them not scoring those if you put them a bit higher? The way we’ve been going, putting them a bit higher is definitely an option. It certainly worked with Joe Root going up to three. That’s high on the agenda, I would have thought.”