London: England coach Trevor Bayliss on Tuesday said skipper Joe Root is under ‘no pressure’ at all in his position as team’s captain.
“He hasn’t come under question from anyone making decisions. So he’s under no pressure at all,” ESPN Cricinfo quoted Bayliss as saying.
After registering a 185-run victory in the fourth Ashes, Australia retained the Ashes as they are on a 2-1 lead with one match left in the series.
Root witnessed three ducks in the ongoing Ashes series so far. However, Bayliss backed the 28-year-old batsman, saying that everyone goes through such a period and Australia have bowled ‘pretty well’ to him.
“Everyone goes through periods where they don’t make quite as many runs as they would like. I think the Australia team have bowled pretty well to him. We’ll see how things go further down the line but from my point of view, he’s our premier batter,” Bayliss said.
Despite losing the fourth Ashes Test match, England opted to make no change in the squad for the next match. Backing the decision, Bayliss said players should be given the opportunity to prove themselves.
“Over the last three or four years, one of the things we’ve spoken about was that we really want to give everyone an opportunity to prove themselves – I’ve said before, give them one too many games rather than one not enough,” he said.
“Maybe bringing someone new and young into the team against this opposition [would be detrimental]. We might see some changes through the winter but a few of the guys looked like they were trying to do the right thing and gutsed it out and did well on the at last day [at Old Trafford], so we’ve decided to give them another opportunity,” Bayliss added.
The fifth Ashes Test match between England and Australia will commence from September 12.