Alastair Cook has described the appointment of Trevor Bayliss as England head coach as a coup and said the Australian’s impending arrival has his players buzzing.
Speaking before Friday’s second Test with New Zealand at Headingley, where Cook could become England’s record Test run-scorer, the captain is looking forward to working alongside Bayliss when he arrives at the end of next month before the start of the Ashes in Cardiff on 8 July.
“It’s good it has been completed in terms of clarity but also, he’s a coach with a fantastic record all round the world,” Cook said.
“ The guys are just looking forward to him coming over now and getting stuck in. Trevor is experienced in all forms of the game and everywhere he’s gone he’s been successful. It’s obviously a great coup to have him.”
Cook, who has yet to speak to Bayliss but has exchanged voicemails, goes into the second Test needing just 32 runs to surpass the 8,900 that flowed from the bat of Graham Gooch and break a record that has stood for 20 years.
While that milestone is secondary to securing the two-match series – his side are 1-0 up following the 124-run victory on Monday – he maintains his mentor Gooch is still England’s greatest-ever batsman. “I wouldn’t put myself anywhere near his class,” said Cook. “It will be a great moment if it happens but there will only ever be one Graham Gooch and he is England’s greatest batsman.
“Your job as a batter is to score runs and however nice it would be if I do get the 30-odd to pass the great man, that won’t be enough for the game,” he added. “In the game situation it is important I go on to get a big score.”
After speaking to Jimmy Anderson, who broke Ian Botham’s Test wicket-taking record on the recent tour of the Caribbean and who is one away from becoming the first Englishman to get past 400, Cook admits it will be strange to go past Gooch’s record, having worked with him since he was a teenager coming through the ranks at Essex. “Jimmy spoke about it and said you don’t really believe it when you are at the top of the tree and you see those guys you are ahead of,” said Cook.
“Certainly I wouldn’t be here without Goochie’s help. It will be strange [when I go past it] because without his hard work and his dedication to me and my game I wouldn’t have scored half the runs that I have.”
Last year Cook was forced to inform his trusted adviser that, after five years in the job, his services as England batting coach were no longer required. But the pair resumed their work together at the start of this year following the left-hander’s removal from the one-day team last December.
The upshot of those hours spent in the nets has been a return to form. He ended a two-year spell without an international century in the third Test against West Indies last month and followed it up with 162 at Lord’s, an innings that suggested he is back to his best.
“It was refreshing [to work with other coaches] but I think it is really important you have one guy you go back to because he knows your game, knows you as a person,” said Cook.
“I think that is important, especially when you get scrutinised as much as you do as an international. People always talk about you and your game and it is very easy to get distracted and pulled in different directions.
“ So to have a guy you trust, a guy who you’ve always worked with, I think it very important for any kind of batter coming through.”
England’s victory at Lord’s has certainly captured the public’s imagination, with Yorkshire reporting a 5,000 surge in ticket sales since the thrilling climax to that Test on Monday.
And while the captain admits he may have been too conservative in the past, he believes attacking players such as Ben Stokes, who scored an 85-ball century in that win, will naturally see England’s style of cricket become entertaining.
Asked if his side can always play in such an enterprising fashion, Cook replied: “I think it is achievable.
“There is a balancing act. Maybe I have been too conservative in the past, sometimes I haven’t got it right, sometimes I have got it right. That’s not for me to say.
“I’ve never encouraged a guy to play in any other way than the reason he was picked,” Cook added.
“I can only look back on my career and the advice I always give to a player is the reason you got picked is because you are doing the right things.
“If you change that in your first or second Test match, then you’re not doing yourself justice and you’re not the player we picked. That’s never changed.”
