Trevor Bayliss backs Alastair Cook to get 'back in the groove'

The 1-0 defeat in the two-Test series in New Zealand meant that in their last 14 Tests away, England have won one – in Bangladesh – and lost 10, with the 58-run capitulation in the first innings of the first Test in Auckland the most disappointing performance.

Speculation about Alastair Cook’s future has been rife after the opening batsman – England’s leading scorer in Tests with 12,028 runs – manged just 23 runs in four innings in New Zealand, getting out to Trent Boult on each occasion.

Since the start of the home series against the Windies in August 2017, Cook has scored two double-centuries but failed to cross 40 in the 16 remaining innings.

“It would be dangerous to write off someone who’s scored 12,000 Test runs,” said Trevor Bayliss, the England coach, at the end of the New Zealand series. “He’s desperately disappointed he hasn’t contributed more but speaking to him in the sheds he’s still got a hunger for the game. He still wants to do well and thinks he’s got a role to play. We need someone of his experience and hopefully it won’t be long before he’s back in the groove.”

Cook hasn’t been the only batsman in the England line-up whose performances have been below par. Mark Stoneman, James Vince and Dawid Malan are averaging 30.17, 24.90 and 30.95 respectively, and that has added pressure on Joe Root and the lower-order batsmen, like Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali.

“Clearly there is a difference between the ODI and Test side,” said Bayliss. “In the ODIs we’re trying to squeeze 15 or 16 players into the XI. But we’ve probably got three or four positions in the Test team still trying to make their way and prove to everyone that they are good enough to play at that level.”

Speaking specifically about the three newcomers, who have now all played at least 10 Tests, Bayliss said, “I think what they’ve all shown over this winter is that they are good players and they’ve scored some runs against quality opposition bowlers. But what we need from them is to be doing it more often. They’re averaging high 20s, we need them to get that up and hopefully put another 20 on that.

“They work as hard as anyone I’ve seen, and the other side of that is who do we replace them with? I guess this is a call-out to the guys in county cricket, the first five or six matches of the county season are very important. We’ve got (Liam) Livingstone and the other one I’ll add in who’s impressed in the nets is Ben Foakes. He’s batting very well also. So there’s a couple of guys in this squad who can hopefully score runs and put a bit of pressure on and make the selectors’ job difficult, which is what we all want.”

While Root has been the standout batsman in terms of consistency, with Bairstow just behind him, the England captain hasn’t been able to get the big hundreds the team expect of him.

His last century came in the first Test against the Windies at home and since then he has crossed 50 nine times without getting to three figures.

“There’s a fair bit of pressure on him to be the one who scores the runs and we need a few more runs from some of the other guys. I think that would take a little bit of the pressure off Joe,” said Bayliss. “When you get knocked over for 58 you’re concerned about it certainly.”