Joe Root has to his credit England’s first Test series win in Sri Lanka since 2001 and coach Trevor Bayliss believes that it is just the beginning for Root the leader. A 2-0 lead in the three-match series with one Test play has certainly boosted the confidence of a team that, prior to this series, had won only one away Test in the past two years.
England have been clinical for most parts throughout their tour of Sri Lanka, but Bayliss believes that there are still areas to work on for Root. “I still think he’ll improve even more from where he’s at at the moment,” Bayliss said.
“Like any young captain, he’d probably like to do a few things differently but the more you have these types of wins in these conditions, that just gives the captain confidence and the players confidence in the captain that he can make the right call. He’ll just get better and better.”
Alastair Cook’s retirement at end of the Test series against India needed an opening batsman to step up and Rory Burns, knocking on the selectors’ doors for quite a while, has done decently on this tour with scores of 23, 9, 59 and 43.
Bayliss also credits “positive intent” for this change. “Look, we’ve always been about having that positive intent,” he said.”Joe himself has probably taken that to another level but it doesn’t necessarily mean guys like Foakes, Keaton Jennings and Burns have to go and play like Joe Root.
“It means going out and playing in a positive Keaton Jennings way for example and I think we’ve done that pretty well over here.”
The third and final Test begins on 23 November in Colombo.
