CT 2017: We were disappointed not to beat Pakistan, says Trevor Bayliss

It was a rather tame end to the much hyped campaign of hosts England in the ICC Champions Trophy. After having topped the group stages, they were humbled by Pakistan in the semi-final. England head coach Trevor Bayliss is still happy with the way things turned out for his side in the tournament. As per the recent quotes in cricket.com.au, Bayliss remarked that the team is working towards the ICC World Cup 2019.

He maintained that the team is gutted to have lost to Pakistan in the semis because they considered themselves to be in a good run. He cited the fielding department to be an area where they have to work a lot more. He believes that the batting has been their strength and they will work even harder on it.

“We are building up to that (World Cup). I know people had us favourites for this competition but that wasn’t the opinion of the team and it was not my point of view, either. We reached the semi-finals and that is probably about right for us at the moment,” quoted Trevor Bayliss.

“We were disappointed not to beat Pakistan, because we had been playing well enough, but we still have a bit of work to do. Our fielding can still get better. Batting is probably our strength but with bowling, there are still improvements to be made. But there is no reason we can’t get that right as well,” he added.

On Jason Roy

One of the failures for England in the tournament was Jason Roy. A string of low scores for Roy in the league stages saw him being dropped from the semi-final game. Also, he had failed to get amongst the runs during the ODI series against South Africa prior to the Champions Trophy. Despite the poor run, Trevor Bayliss has now backed Roy to be opening a lot more for England.

“I think you’ll see Roy at the top of the order a lot more for England. It was one of those situations where you’ve got one guy hoping to score runs and another guy who, when he comes in scores runs and is trying to prove a point, so there was a little bit of the negative-positive thing there,” he quoted.

On team balance

When asked if the current lot of players would be the one heading into the World Cup 2019, Bayliss replied a negative. He rightly pointed out that it would be unfair to the younger lot waiting to get a crack in the national setup. He remarked that if a youngster comes up with excellent performances, he surely will make it to the squad for the big event.

“I think we’d be remiss if we just said these 15 or 16 guys (in the Champions Trophy squad) are going to go to the World Cup in two years’ time. We’ve got to be sensible about it and if there is someone else who deserves to be in the team then we’ve got to look for that,” said Bayliss.

“You never know, if one or two of them (the uncapped players) come up with the goods, they could find themselves in the team in two years. We’ve come a long way in the last two years … but the simple fact is we are still an improving side and getting to a state of play that we think we’re capable of,” he added further.

On the approach

Trevor Bayliss lastly spoke about the approach of the team. He cited that there was no difference in the approach that the team showed for the big game. He is happy with the way team went about the game and is pleased with the brand of cricket they are playing.

“Is there a psychological barrier when England play knockout matches? I didn’t notice anything different about our approach to the Pakistan game. We weren’t at our best and we came up against a team who played very well. You have to take it on the chin,” conceded the English coach.