Trevor Bayliss prefaced his remarks about the ball-tampering saga on Tuesday with the standard, “Obviously I am disappointed and as an Australian I’m embarrassed”, but went on to add: “Steve [Smith] is a lovely young bloke, who has made a terrible mistake.”
The England head coach recognises Smith has to be punished but he, at least, has a deeper knowledge of the former Australia captain than most, having worked with him while coaching New South Wales.
Bayliss is not inclined to stir the pot for the sake of it. When asked about suggestions Australia had been tampering with the ball during the Ashes series, he said: “I thought we were outplayed by a much better team. I’ve got no complaints.”
He acknowledged, though, that the Australians have not helped themselves recently. “I think a lot of what they’re copping at the moment comes from the way they have played their game. It’s almost like teams and people around the world have been waiting for them to stuff up so they can lay the boot in.”
This is an observation that must pain Bayliss, a good, old-fashioned Aussie. Cricket matches do not have to be theatres of war. “We [England] had good, hard competition against South Africa the last couple of times we’ve played them, and the players and everyone got on really well. It’s the same thing with New Zealand. When they were in England three or four years ago – and on this occasion – it’s been played in a really good spirit.” Meanwhile, before the Auckland Test against New Zealand there was much talk of a change in approach, especially in the way Joe Root might juggle his bowling attack. This never came to pass. Now there has to be consideration of a personnel change for the second Test in Christchurch, which starts at 11pm BST on Thursday, although it would be much easier to make sweeping changes to the side if Ben Stokes was fit to bowl. That now seems most unlikely.
Mark Wood, Jack Leach and Liam Livingstone are all here and the virtues of all three will surely be discussed even though this regime has always been reluctant to drop anybody. Bayliss sounds as if he might countenance some changes for a Test that England must win to avoid their third series defeat against New Zealand.
“They will certainly come into contention and will be spoken about,” he said. “Having lost so many games overseas we’ve given a lot of guys an opportunity and they haven’t really grabbed hold of it. At some stage we have to look at who’s next.”
Bayliss is beset with conventional problems for a coach: the batsmen are not firing and the bowlers have been struggling to penetrate. In Auckland movement off the pitch and in the air was elusive for Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and co and with another lush outfield in Christchurch and autumnal dampness intruding there is unlikely to be much talk of the pursuit of reverse swing. Which is a relief.
