Joe Root has called on England to send outgoing head coach Trevor Bayliss on his way “with a real big bang” by drawing the Ashes at The Oval.
This week marks the end of the series, the end of the international summer and the end of Bayliss’ four-year reign.
His time in charge is destined to be remembered for a phenomenal improvement in white-ball cricket, capped off by this summer’s World Cup win at Lord’s, while the Test side has struggled to touch the same heights.
“We need to celebrate what Trevor has done throughout his tenure and as players we need to send him off with a real big bang,” said Root.
“He has had a massive influence here and he will be sorely missed by all the players that have had a chance to work with him.”
England have made two alterations to the side that went down fighting at Old Trafford last week, with Jason Roy and Craig Overton axed in favour of Sam Curran and Chris Woakes.
Hopes were high that the batsman could transfer his dominant performances in the one-day arena to Test whites but, in averaging 13.75 in eight innings, he was the most vulnerable when it became clear Stokes’ bowling would be compromised in the coming days.
That made his fellow all-rounder, Curran, a must-pick and forced an early end to the Roy experiment.
? BREAKING NEWS ?
We have named our team for the fifth @Specsavers #Ashes Test.
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 11, 2019
“Jason is the unfortunate one to miss out,” said Root.
“He is very aware of where he is at and what he needs to do to get himself in the best place to perform in Test cricket. He’s had an opportunity to come in and play Test cricket, get a feel for it, and it has not gone quite how he would have liked.
“But I’m sure he will go away and work extremely hard and come again. That is what you expect of guys when they get left out and I’m sure he will have that attitude and want to try and prove a point and get himself back into the side.”
“We’re very hungry for this, we’ve already spoken about the fact that we came here to win the Ashes not just retain them,” said Paine.
“Last week’s result was brilliant and we played very well but all our guys are fully aware this Test is bigger than that one. This is our grand final.”
