London, Jan 19 (IANS) Former England head coach Trevor Bayliss has backed former captain Andrew Strauss to lead the revival of England in red-ball cricket, citing his role in changing the fortunes of England in white-ball cricket in 2015. With England’s revival in red-ball cricket becoming a hot topic of discussion due to 0-4 thrashing in the Ashes, Bayliss has endorsed Strauss’s name to take up the reset project.
“Something desperately needed to change and England’s commitment to improving after years of under-achievement led to winning the World Cup of 2019 and formidable 50-over and T20 international sides. The architect of that change, of course, was Andrew Strauss as then team director. I believe he would be the perfect man to do the same for England’s red-ball game now, if his personal situation is such that he can devote the time to it,” wrote Bayliss for Daily Mail.
Strauss was appointed as director of cricket in May 2015 to lay the foundation of England’s revival in white-ball cricket, especially in the wake of the side crashing out in the group stages of the Men’s Cricket World Cup.
He was instrumental in bringing Bayliss as head coach with England reaching the final of Men’s T20 World Cup in 2016, semi-finals of Champions Trophy 2017 and winning the Men’s Cricket World Cup on home soil in 2019.
“I thoroughly enjoyed working with Straussy. He is an intelligent man with an innate knowledge of the game and has wide-ranging experiences as a player, England captain and then an administrator. England will be hard-pressed to find anyone better than him to pull this task off and get the team back on the right road in Test cricket. When I was with England, Strauss had this ability after a meeting to perfectly summarise what we were thinking and what needed to be done. Everyone understood his message,” opined Bayliss.
As of now, Strauss serves as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) cricket committee and had stepped down as England’s director of cricket in 2018 to help look after his wife, Ruth, who died of lung cancer later in the year in December and currently runs a foundation in her name.
The 59-year-old signed off by hoping Strauss is given a leading role in reviving England’s fortunes in red-ball cricket. “There are so many people passionate about the long form of the game in England that I am optimistic change can happen. Yes, it might take time, but England is a country with a proud Test history and there are few prouder than Andrew Strauss. I think he should be at the forefront of putting things right.”
–IANS
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