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Bayliss has 'fingers crossed' all players tour Bangladesh

England coach Trevor Bayliss has admitted the possibility of players pulling out of the tour of Bangladesh due to security concerns could create a conundrum when it comes to naming the Test squad

Andrew McGlashan
Andrew McGlashan
05-Sep-2016
England coach Trevor Bayliss has admitted the possibility of players pulling out of the Test tour of Bangladesh due to security concerns would create a conundrum when it comes to naming the squad for India.
Bayliss' preference is for the same squad to be used for the seven-Test stretch across Bangladesh and India and he said he had his "fingers crossed" that all those selected would undertake the tour. Players have been given assurances that if they did withdraw from Bangladesh it would not impact future selection, but the proximity of the two Test series - with no warm-up matches in India - would create a dilemma.
Moeen Ali, who is certain to be part of the Test squad, is the only England player to publicly confirm without question that he will tour, although Jonny Bairstow has also come close and Alastair Cook is reported to have given private assurances he will lead the Test side. Bayliss himself, as with his assistant Paul Farbrace, said he had no concerns about the trip.
"It would be a bit hard to actually pick one [squad] and then another one. That could get down to who wants to go and who doesn't I suppose, but ultimately it would be best for the team to have one team [for both tours]," he said.
When pressed if a player's place in India was directly linked to touring Bangladesh, Bayliss added: "Well, they might not say that, but it's a bridge we've got to cross if that happens. I've sort of got the fingers crossed that it doesn't occur. It might be a difficult decision if that happens."
Eoin Morgan, who would only be part of the one-day squad, has still to decide whether he will travel but Bayliss was hopeful of a mass undertaking. "I think most of them will," he said. "I'm not sure if there's anyone come out, certainly they haven't said anything to me one way or another."
Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, has continued to have meetings with players who hold concerns while the naming of the squads was pushed back to allow more time after the series against Pakistan finishes.
Away from the security-related issues surrounding Bangladesh, the one-day and Test squads present different challenges for the selectors. Bayliss, who indicated he does not expect any players to be rested for the ODIs, despite the workload on the likes of Joe Root, said it was often difficult to decide which players to leave out of the one-day squad. There remains more uncertainty around the Test permutations with a couple of places still up for debate.
"I know James Whitaker [the national selector] would like to get as much of the county season in before it's selected. They are probably like me, doodling and picking teams. I think in my mind I'm reasonably close. There are one or two positions in a squad of 16 that could go either way."
Chief among those are the opening batsman to partner Cook, with Alex Hales' place under threat after a lean series against Pakistan, and the extra spinner - or spinners - alongside Moeen and Adil Rashid.
England gave Liam Dawson an ODI debut in Cardiff with an eye on the touring squads and Bayliss praised his "game sense" and "guts" after the Pakistan batsmen came after him. Dawson's first spell of four overs cost 41 runs, but he returned to remove the two top scorers, Sarfraz Ahmed and Shoaib Malik, to give England a chance of coming from behind for victory.
"He will certainly be in discussions, I would have thought," Bayliss said with regard the Test squad. "He's a guy who's got something about him. He bats, bowls and he's a pretty good fielder as well. But it's his game sense, he knows how to play the game, he almost knows what's going to happen before it happens, he's one of those type of players.
"They came out to attack him playing his first game and he took it on the chin, he kept going, he kept bowling. He flattened it out a little bit I suppose but he didn't bowl badly even when they were getting hold of him, one or two in those first three or four overs just went wide of mid-on. On another day they could be out, but he had enough guts to throw one or two up and he got his rewards in his second spell."
Another player strongly tipped to be included is the 19-year-old Lancashire opener Haseeb Hameed who has had a prolific County Championship season scoring 1129 runs at 53.76. He was visited by Whitaker and Strauss at Old Trafford last week while Bayliss said his youth - this has been his first full season - would not be a concern.
"If he's good enough, he's old enough. No, I wouldn't have any problem. There have been some young players making some runs who are coming into calculations which is very exciting."

Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo