Trevor Bayliss upbeat over Jimmy Anderson Test hopes

'He has bowled a bit so whatever it is it’s not a terribly bad injury'

(Getty Images)

England are awaiting the results of scans on Jimmy Anderson’s troublesome right calf. From the comments of Trevor Bayliss, the coach, however, it was possible to deduce that Anderson will be fit to play in the England team for the first Test against South Africa on Boxing Day.

On the other hand, Bayliss is so relaxed about matters and so measured in the way he assesses every event that he would probably have reacted similarly had Anderson been hobbling round on crutches.

“Unfortunately, Jimmy’s had a little bit of a tight calf muscle,” said Bayliss. “He hasn’t been able to bowl a lot of overs on this tour. He has bowled, though, so whatever it is it’s not a terribly bad one. It’s always a concern if your leading bowler or batter misses a game, but the last time he missed one we did pretty well. You never know, I won’t make any predictions, though.”

Anderson was injured for the Trent Bridge Test against Australia last summer and had been bowling so well that there were genuine concerns for England’s well-being. Stuart Broad took 8 for 15, Australia were dismissed for 60 and England won the Ashes. But England did lose the following match at The Oval when Anderson was again absent.

Bayliss, who is much more open about team selection than almost all his secretive predecessors, confirmed that Steve Finn would probably play whatever happens about Anderson. But he will not rush a bowler who has had only one full match (disregarding two T20s in the UAE) since a stress fracture. “We’ll probably have to wait and see how his body pulls up. It’s been a while since he played three days in a row. He feels pretty good but we’ll wait and see before making that decision.

“He’s first choice, at this stage, if he’s fit. Over the past 12 months he’s been fantastic. He’s been a great back-up to Broad and Anderson. If fit he’d be difficult to leave out.”

Finn would deserve to reclaim his place after missing the three Tests against Pakistan in the UAE but it would be bad luck for Chris Woakes. This has been a frustrating year for Woakes, who has suffered a succession of injuries to foot, knee and thigh. He played in the first tour match and was England’s most consistent bowler. Some time, he deserves a chance to add to his four Test caps.

Bayliss was quietly delighted with the way England went about their work in Pietermaritzburg, where they defeated a supposedly strong South Africa A team by an innings and 91 runs. The gap in standards and application between the sides was almost embarrassing. “I’m all for us playing first-class games and trying to win and we played well and did that,” Bayliss said. “That sends a message to the opposition and to our players. That we’re playing to win. We’re not just going out for some practice, where sometimes the mental approach can be off a little bit. You can say SA A played below par but it might have been because we played very well.”

He also touched briefly on the dilemma for resting players from squads and the Test squad not having precedence. “You’ve heard Andrew Strauss talk about changing that thought process,” Bayliss said. “It might take a while for it to turn half a circle but, going forward, if we can have a fairly stable one-day and T20 squad and if that happens to be a little bit different to the Test matches, then so be it.”

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Trevor Bayliss has promised Stuart Broad his limited-overs career is not over, despite leaving him out of the one-day leg of the South Africa tour. Broad has not played white-ball cricket since the World Cup, with Bayliss encouraging greater separation between the formats. Liam Plunkett is also unlucky to miss out after playing well against Pakistan in the UAE.

Squad

E Morgan, M Ali, J Bairstow*, S Billings**, J Buttler, S Finn, A Hales, C Jordan, A Rashid, J Root, J Roy, B Stokes, J Taylor*, R Topley, D Willey, D Woakes, J Vince**

*ODIs only

**T20s only