Trevor Bayliss wants full-strength England squad for Bangladesh series

While the uncertainty over the availability of players for England’s upcoming tour of Bangladesh still persists despite the ECB’s security delegation giving a go-ahead for the tour, England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss is hopeful that he will have the luxury to choose the best players for the touring party rather than being forced to select others due to the first-choice players pulling out.

With a tougher assignment in India following soon after the Bangladesh series, Bayliss wants his best players to get accustomed to the sub-continent conditions and would prefer more-or-less the same squad to be picked for both the series.

"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. "I think most of them will (regarding going ahead with the Bangladesh tour). I'm not sure if there's anyone come out, certainly they haven't said anything to me one way or another.”

Moeen Ali recently stated that he had no security concerns about touring Bangladesh but Liam Plunkett was far less committal saying that he needed more time before taking a final call on the matter. What worries Bayliss the most is that a situation might pop up where a player might lose his place for the Indian tour as a result of giving the Bangladesh tour a miss.

"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," Bayliss responded about the query.

He gave his backing to the English selectors who are yet to name the squad for the Bangladesh series but would certainly like to see more of all-rounder Liam Dawson who made his international debut during the fifth and final ODI against Pakistan at Cardiff.

"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," Bayliss said.

"He (Liam Dawson) 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," he added.

While Northamptonshire coach David Ripley believes opener Ben Duckett has a good chance to be named in the touring party for Bangladesh, Bayliss believes 19-year-old Lancashire opener Haseeb Hameed also stands a chance as he doesn’t believe that his young age should act as a deterrent.

"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," Bayliss said.