• ‘We’ve spoken about who is going to put their hand up’• Head coach reacts to England’s perilous positionScarves with “Ben Stokes: greatest innings of all time” have been on sale outside Old Trafford during this Test and Trevor Bayliss has accepted that similar heroics to those witnessed at Headingley will be needed if England’s Ashes hopes are to be kept alive.
Speaking after day four, with his side sitting 18 for two and needing to bat out 98 more overs on a wearing pitch to keep the series at 1-1 with one to play, Bayliss looked to keep the mood upbeat despite the perilous nature of the situation. “I’m always positive,” he said. “I think we can do it. There’s no use playing at this level if you don’t. They believe they are good enough to bat 98 overs and save the game. We’ve certainly got some players in the sheds who can make hundreds. As we saw in the last Test, anything is possible.”