Australia-born England coach has grand ambitions to knock Darren Lehmann's side off their perch and claim the world No.1 Test ranking
Bayliss coveting Aussies' No.1 ranking
England may have just wrapped up their Test series against Sri Lanka with a game to spare but Trevor Bayliss already has Australia on his mind.
That's probably no surprise given the coach from Goulburn, New South Wales, has a long-term goal of helping England to the top of the International Cricket Council's Test rankings.
That's a position Steve Smith's side currently hold, although England can move up to second with five wins from seven Tests this northern summer.
Quick Single: Dizzy rules himself out of Aussie role
Two have already been achieved against a limited Sri Lanka side at Headingley and Durham. The margin of victory in those games, by an innings and 88 runs and nine wickets respectively, suggests a 3-0 whitewash may be on the cards when the teams meet again at Lord's next week.
Pakistan then provide the next opposition, with four Tests completing what promises to be an encouraging few months on home soil for Bayliss and England.
Special feature: Is England the new India?
Improvement, though, is the name of the game for this group of players led by captain Alastair Cook and both the newest member of Test cricket's 10,000-run club and Bayliss are hoping the team can be in an even healthier position by the time the next Ashes series in Australia rolls around in 18 months' time.
It's a series that, if both teams can continue winning, might be a shoot-out for top spot in the Test rankings.
So it's no surprise Bayliss wasn't in the mood to lavish much praise on his team after their comfortable win in Durham. There is much work to be done yet.
Quick Single: Captain Cook hits 10,000 run landmark
Asked if he had learned anything from the past two Tests against Sri Lanka, the laconic Australian replied: "Not really, only other than nothing's really changed. We're not a team in transition but we've still got a long way to go before we reach our best or a position or way of playing the game that I think everyone would be happy with.
"If we want to compete against Australia, who are the No1 team at the moment, on a consistent basis there are areas we need to improve. So we are still a work in progress."
James Anderson's stellar performances so far in this series against Sri Lanka – he has 18 wickets at 7.72 – have seen him usurp team-mate Stuart Broad as the world's top-ranked Test bowler.
Quick Single: Anderson scales summit
That pair, who have taken 659 Test wickets in the 85 matches they have played together, are key to England's success.
Yet with one eye on England's winter tours of Bangladesh and India, Bayliss believes there is room for improvement from the rest of a bowling unit who laboured on a slow, low Durham pitch that Cook admitted was more "Colombo than Chester-le-Street".
"Probably bowling on the flatter, spin-bowling wickets we can keep it tight but we've got room for improvement in terms of taking wickets," he said.
"I think our batting needs to improve against spin bowling as well. We did play well in the UAE against Pakistan last year so we know we can score runs."
It will be in Australia next year, though, that this England team under Bayliss will be truly tested in the biggest series of them all.
Cook can beat Tendulkar, says coach
Alastair Cook has the potential to move ahead of Indian great Sachin Tendulkar as the world's leading Test run-scorer, England head coach Trevor Bayliss has said.
Cook became the first Englishman and 12th batsman to pass 10,000 runs during the second Test on Monday against Sri Lanka.
At 31 years, five months and five days, Cook became the youngest player to reach the landmark but the left-hander has some way to go to surpass Tendulkar, who made more than 15,000 Test runs.
"It will be about how long he wants to keep doing it," Bayliss said.
"But certainly, there is time on his side, so there is no reason he couldn't if his heart is still in it and his will to do it is still there.
"He is right up there with any of the best international players. He has these powers of concentration. He is not the biggest stroke-player of all time (but) he knows his game very well, he is very patient and he sticks to it.
"To be able to do that over the period of time he has played and score as many runs as he has is a fantastic effort."