Alex Hales, James Vince and Gary Ballance have batted at numbers two, four and five respectively in the drawn Investec series against Pakistan.
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England have an established policy of ensuring all players selected are given time to prove themselves, b ut as Bayliss assessed the team’s performance after their 10-wicket defeat at The Oval on Sunday, there were hints perhaps that time may well be running out in some cases. “We’re still looking for consistent contributions from some of the middle order”. ‘There will be some tough decisions to be made in the next month’.
“There’s a month to go in the county season and there’s a challenge out there for some of those other guys to put their hand up and keep scoring runs”.
Bayliss did not rule out the impact on selectors of white-ball runs between now and the announcement of a touring party.
“We saw Alex Hales score runs against Sri Lanka in Test cricket earlier this year, but obviously he has struggled in this series”, Bayliss added.
“Some of them have dropped off”.
“The next month or so will be very important for guys playing county cricket who have aspirations of playing at the top level”.
“And those who have been picked are experienced at county level but have found it tough to jump up to this level”.
Ballance, recalled by England against Pakistan after Nick Compton took a break from cricket, had the highest series average of the trio at 27.85 with the 26-year-old’s high score a 70 at Edgbaston.
“Certainly going into the third umpire’s room, that was just wrong”.
One thing that won’t be held against Hales in selection meetings was his outburst at the third umpire over his first-innings dismissal at The Oval.
The incident has already cost Hales a £1,500 fine, while team-mate Stuart Broad paid £2,000 for an unwelcome Twitter observation on the same topic. “It was silly, really”.
“It will come down to who is out there, who can take their place”. But it won’t count against him in selection.
“I think it will get down to the number of runs, and whether he deserves to be in the team”.
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Bayliss reacted to England’s failure to secure the win that would have given them all nine Test trophies and moved them to the brink of the top of the world rankings with his customary quest for bold moves. “We’re inconsistent”, he said. And that is the one bit of good news for Hales and Vince, who look set to be named in the ODI squad today, for all that Bayliss said the pair are under the spotlight. If he has confidence with his batting, he is doing the other pretty well. “He still has work to do with the keeping but I think he has made some strides”.
