Trevor Bayliss: ‘Morgs made England ruthless and test the ceiling of what was possible’

A chat with Trevor Bayliss about Eoin Morgan’s England retirement begins with a practically audible wry smile down the phone line when the former head coach brings up the Test team’s daredevil approach during the 3-0 win against New Zealand.

“The interesting thing will be when it doesn’t work and whether you blokes get stuck into them for playing too many bloody shots,” says Bayliss from his home in New South Wales on the day Morgan announced his news. “Even during the Ashes [last winter], the English commentators were saying their players were getting bogged down and needed to be more proactive, play a few shots. Mate, where was that the previous few years? All I got was: ‘They’re playing too many.’”

It’s a fair cop from the 59-year-old but something he finds amusing. His laidback, homespun positivity, allied with Morgan’s laser vision, saw England scorch their way to World Cup glory in 2019 but in parallel Bayliss and “aggressive cricket” were quickly cited on the days when the Test team tripped up and wickets tumbled like dominoes.

Brendon McCullum, the new Test head coach, has said he wants to “cut out the noise” as he and Ben Stokes push the dial back towards the Bayliss way (probably beyond it, given their stated aim is to change how the sport is played). For the Australian, this is just the Antipodean cricket mentality at play.

“McCullum rang me before he took off for England and we had a discussion about it,” says Bayliss. “He played the game aggressively but to be honest, that’s just how it is in our part of the world; it’s not playing a Test match like it’s a T20 but more the positive attitude. That’s the most difficult thing to convince people of in the UK.”

Bayliss sees plenty of Morgan’s early methods as