We competed on equal terms, says Bayliss

Bayliss felt that, despite losing, not much separated England and Pakistan

Despite being on the losing side in the recently concluded second Test of the series, England head coach Trevor Bayliss is proud of his charges, saying there was little separating the two sides.

Though England lost the second test against Pakistan by 178 runs in Abu Dhabi, the English coach appreciated the team’s performance. The Australian feels, the team is confident of levelling the series in the third and final Test which is starting from Saturday at Sharjah, reports WisdenIndia.

“I think we’ve competed on equal terms with them. We need to do the same and we need to make some improvements as well. It’s been a very even nine days of Test cricket over here (in Abu Dhabi and Dubai) and, unfortunately, we played very poorly on day three of this last Test,” said Bayliss on Tuesday, referring to England’s collapse in the first innings in Dubai.

Bayliss agreed with the fact that Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid failed to perform to their ability. But, at the same time Yasir Shah (eight wickets) and Zulfiqar Babar (three wickets) came up with a match-winning performance for Pakistan in Dubai.

“We need to score some runs in that middle order and we are disappointed with our spin bowling as well. I will say they are bowling against some of the best players of spin in the world, but I think it’s a great learning curve. The two spinners we’ve got are learning quickly and I’m sure they’ll get better,” said Bayliss, and also reminded of the inclusion of Samit Patil, the left-arm spinner, in the final Test.

“We have been thinking about playing a third spinner in Sharjah. We’ll have to wait and see the wicket. I think the strength in our bowling has been our pace bowling so we don’t necessarily want to change that either.”

Bayliss acknowledged the fact that there’s a need to shore up the middle order, as he talked up James Taylor, who last donned the English whites in 2012.

“He’s (Taylor) probably one of our better players of spin. I think he showed in the practice matches we played that he can play well over here,” said Bayliss. “So to have someone like that probably somewhere in the middle order would be a benefit to the team as well.”

With one match in the series to go, England trail 1-0. The third and final Test starts in Sharjah on Saturday.