Trevor Bayliss claimed he will have little input into the future of England’s Test captaincy but has conceded the brutal fourth day in Chennai – one that saw the tourists ship their highest ever number of runs in the field as India racked up 759 for seven declared – could be the type to make up Alastair Cook’s mind on the subject.
Bayliss, the head coach, was due to fly home to Sydney on Monday before the completion of the dead-rubber fifth Test in order to have a check-up on a hernia operation and admitted he was doing so unsure of which way it will go when Cook meets Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, in January to discuss the best path forward.
Asked if Cook might be swayed by the punishment inflicted by India’s triple-centurion, Karun Nair, Bayliss replied: “Possibly. But I haven’t even spoken to him about it and, to be honest, I won’t. That’s a decision only he will know the answer to and he’s done it for so long, whether I say yes or no won’t change his mind whether he keeps going or he stops. If he keeps going, fantastic but, if he stops, I have no problem with that either.
“I’m sure we will speak on the phone at some stage but I won’t sit down with him to have a chat. We have six months until our next Test match [against South Africa in July] so there is plenty of time for him to have a think about it. They may ask me what I think but I’m pretty sure that would be after Cookie has already made a decision.”
Despite the chastening nature of England’s seven sessions chasing leather in the field – in the last of which India plundered 177 runs in 25.4 overs to register their highest total in history – Bayliss voiced no criticism of Cook’s tactics, instead laying the blame at the door of the bowlers.
He said: “I think Alastair [Cook] probably tried everything. The No1 thing is, if you set a field, you’ve got to be able to bowl to it. The Indian batsmen were able to take advantage of some half-volleys and some long-hops. The young guy that got 300, that was a fantastic innings.”
Bayliss, whose side are 3-0 down and need to bat out the fifth day to keep it that way, also stated that a couple of players “need to have a good, hard look at themselves” while lamenting the catching in the series. The latest sliding-doors drop was made by Cook himself, who on the third day gave Nair a life on 34 when grassing a sharp chance at slip.
He said: “The ground fielding is better than during the home summer but catching is still below par. The last three catches we’ve dropped have cost over 500 runs and that is something we have to keep working on. There are no shortcuts. We are a team that haven’t got a lot of natural athletes – we have good cricketers but we haven’t got a lot of good slip catchers. Across the board we just have to get better. It’s as simple as that.”
Cook’s challenging day was summed up with the misfield at point that brought up Nair’s landmark moment and India’s declaration. The 25-year-old batsman became only the third player in history to make his maiden Test century a triple after Garfield Sobers’ unbeaten 365 for West Indies against Pakistan in Antigua in 1958 and the 311 scored by Australia’s Bob Simpson at Old Trafford during the 1964 Ashes.
“Everyone’s being very cheerful. Everyone’s being very nice to me. They have congratulated me. I think it’ll take a couple of days for myself to sink in,” said Nair, whose unbeaten 303 in only his third innings made it the earliest triple in a Test career. “The first hundred is always important and when I got that I didn’t feel any pressure and just played my shots. That’s the best knock of my life.”
England, meanwhile, have sought an explanation from the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the local authorities after their security plans for the current Test in Chennai were discovered by a supporter on the desktop of a public computer in a hotel lobby not being used by the team.
The document, which according to Cricinfo included a list of player rooms in the team hotel and the location of guards, was not password protected and has prompted the team’s head of security, Reg Dickason, to request the plans be revised.
