Having coached NSW and the Sydney Sixers, Trevor Bayliss knows exactly what to expect from his former charges in the second Test.
Australia were embarrassed and outclassed in the Ashes opener, with Bayliss overseeing a 169-run victory in his first game in charge of England.
Bayliss, who was keen to downplay his role in the win, remains close with Brad Haddin, Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon and others in the Australian dressing room.
“They would be hurting. They don’t like losing,” Bayliss said.
“They’ve got a proud record and losing will mean they come out in the next game trying to prove a point and make up for their performance in this match.
“The boys are very aware that when you beat Australia the next match will be even tougher, they will hit back hard we know that.”
Australia’s batsmen struggled to turn starts into scores of substance, while their quicks failed to run through the tail clinically in either innings.
Haddin put down a crucial catch that allowed Joe Root to score a sparkling 134 in the first dig.
Mitchell Starc’s ankle injury will be a major concern this week, while Shane Watson’s place in the side will also come under serious scrutiny when Darren Lehmann mulls his XI for the second Test that starts at Lords on Thursday.
It’s enough evidence for some UK media outlets to ponder a 5-0 win, while Australian pundits are readying their crisis alerts.
Bayliss doesn’t expect the five-Test series to be as one-sided as the first Test.
“Enough of their batters showed enough, they got starts,” he said.
“They’re not far off making some big scores.
“There’s still a long way to go in this series and to win it we’ll need to play some very good cricket.”
Alastair Cook adopted more aggressive and innovative fields at Sophia Gardens, while he also employed successful plans for Australia’s batsmen.
Bayliss insisted it was all the captain’s doing.
“I didn’t speak to Cooky too much at all about specific fielding positions, other than allow them to go over the top early and hopefully they make a mistake,” he said.
“We wanted to send the message that we’re here to take wickets.”
