Bayliss IDs issues on long road to Ashes

You have to feel for Trevor Bayliss.

England's Australian coach has had a pretty decent first 14 months or so in the job yet some problems are proving stubbornly difficult to solve despite his best efforts.

The defeat by Pakistan in the final Test at The Oval leaves England at a crossroads just 14 months out from the biggest tour of them all – the Ashes in Australia.

A home Ashes win and a series victory in South Africa were big landmarks for Bayliss in his first year.

But the homecoming to Australia will be the biggest test of his coaching career – and given England head to India for five Tests in November, that's saying something.

The problems Bayliss needs to fix before India and, more importantly before the 2017-18 Ashes, are myriad.

Heading that list are: a top five that is overly-reliant on the runs of captain Alastair Cook and Joe Root; catching; and the lack of a quality frontline spinner.

Asked what his overriding concern was, Bayliss admitted: "Pretty much what's happened in the last 12 months. We've been inconsistent, we're still looking for consistent contributions from some of the middle-order, spin bowling obviously and possibly taking wickets on flat wickets, which obviously spin plays a big part in that."

Misfiring opener Alex Hales and middle order makeweights James Vince and Gary Ballance are all likely to be history by the time the next Ashes roll around. But what of India?

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"They've definitely had a decent run at it," Bayliss said of the trio. "We're probably got around a month before we get together and discuss the next Test series so there will be some tough decisions to be made in the next month or so."

The biggest problem Bayliss has in trying to fix England's fragile top five is his lack of knowledge of the English game.

He rarely gets a chance to watch county cricket and even when he does, there are not many players knocking down the door for selection at domestic level.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone crying out to be selected above anyone else," said the Australian. "There's a number of guys we've seen score some runs earlier this season under a bit of scrutiny when their names are mentioned about the possibility of getting into the team. Some of them have dropped off.

"The two or three guys in the team who have been very good players over the last two or three years at county level have found it tough to jump up to this level.

"They have shown bits and pieces but I think it just proves that the jump between first-class cricket and Test cricket is a big one. 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. Hopefully we can find guys with a little longer term goal of an Ashes in Australia."

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Bayliss' first act when he took over as England coach last year was to take his players to a pre-Ashes camp in Spain, where he drilled them for two days just on catching.

The results were plain to see during the series victory against Australia, the win at Trent Bridge in particular characterised by faultless catching behind the wicket.

Things have not gone to plan this northern summer, though, with 15 chances going down in the series just gone against Pakistan. Those drops were probably the difference between winning it and drawing 2-2.

And with India coming up, England need to up their game in the field or it could be a painful tour on low, slow decks where chances are at a premium.

"We can be very, very good and we can be poor as well, both with our batting and our fielding," said Bayliss.

"A lot of that has something to do with concentration. Some of the catches we dropped in this game were fairly simple and that can only be concentration, it's not a technique thing.

"We've been working on that for the last 12 months or so. But concentration, especially when slips catching is involved, is a big thing.

"I think there are parallels between concentration with our catching and inconsistency with our play - it is probably related. Maybe concentration is something that we've got to make sure we get right."