ENG vs IND 2018: England Need To Learn From Jos Buttler And Ben Stokes, Says Trevor Bayliss

England head coach Trevor Bayliss has urged his players to learn from Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes after the duo’s fighting display in the third England vs India Test at Trent Bridge.

Win at Edgbaston and Lord’s managed to take the focus off England’s batting woes. But there is absolutely no denying that batting has been England’s achilles heel in recent times.

Even in the first Test of the series, they had suffered two inexplicable collapses. In the first innings, they were all out for 287 despite being only three down for 216 at one stage. In the second innings, India shot them out for 180.

A century from Chris Woakes helped them put up a good batting show at Lord’s. However, their recent knack of collapses came back to haunt them again as India bowled them out for just 161 in the first innings at Trent Bridge.

Keaton Jennings and Alastair Cook had added 54 runs for the first wicket. But once both departed on successive deliveries, the rest of the lineup fell like a pack of cards.  England lost all their ten wickets inside a session. For the third time in the last two years, England were bowled out inside a session. The other two instances happened in Mirpur 2016 and Auckland 2018.

England were staring down the barrel in the second innings too while chasing 521. They were reeling at 62 for 4 and were set for a humiliating loss. But Buttler then scored his maiden Test ton, scoring 106 and added 169 runs with Stokes to give his team a glimmer of hope.

However, Jasprit Bumrah’s five-wicket haul dashed England’s hopes. The hosts were eventually all out for 317 as India won the game by 203 runs.

And Bayliss has now urged other players to take a leaf out of Stokes and Buttler’s books. He also admitted that England has developed a problem of losing games after impressive wins.

“It’s not as if we don’t talk about it behind closed doors, try to work out why it’s happening,” said Bayliss. “It hasn’t been any different over the last two or three years; we play extremely well and then get beaten well. But it sets things up for a really good last two Test matches.

“The guys work hard out in the nets. And I think, actually, what we’ve got to do is take the example of young Ben [Stokes] and Jos [Buttler] yesterday and learn from it,” he added.

Last year, South Africa had thrashed them by 340 runs after losing the previous game by 211 runs. In the following series, the hosts had lost to West Indies after thrashing them at Edgbaston in the previous game.

Bayliss, meanwhile, further urged the fragile top order to do the hard yards.

“There haven’t been a lot of runs scored at the top of the order, but it has been the same for most of the other teams we have played as well,” he said.

“It is about assessing the conditions, and working out individually how best to go about, not just surviving, but leaving well, defending well and putting pressure back on the opposition.

“We’ve got to do the hard yards. There is not a lot of difference between success and failure. You can nick one, or play and miss like Jos did on occasion in his innings, like Virat [Kohli] has done. At times, it’s millimetres in it, but that is the game.”

The fourth Test at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton starts on 30 August.