LONDON: Expectations are high in England as the hosts look to take a shot at their maiden World Cup title.
England’s juggernaut has been unstoppable after some early hiccups as they stormed into the last four before crushing defending champions Australia in a one-sided semi-final at Edgbaston on Thursday.
Their commanding performance has raised the hopes of a nation which would be glued to the TV sets after it was announced that Sunday’s final featuring England and New Zealand would be broadcast on a free-to-air platform following an agreement between rights holder Sky and Channel 4.
But amidst all this excitement, England coach Trevor Bayliss is urging for calm. He wants his charges to keep their eyes on the ball instead of getting carried away.
“We had a chat in the changing room (at Edgbaston) afterwards and realised we have not won anything yet,” Bayliss said in an interview after his team defeated Australia by eight wickets.
The Australian made it clear that England’s favourites tag means nothing.
“There is going to be a lot of noise around ‘you guys are now the favourites’, and all this type of thing — we can’t listen to any of that.
“We have just got to concentrate on the way we have gone about our cricket over the past four years and what has got us to this point and go through our process,” he said.
“If we do that, we know we will play good cricket and the opposition will have to play even better to beat us.”
Bayliss, 56, hailed the move to make the final a free-to-air event, something that hasn’t happened since the 2015 Ashes.
“It is an opportunity to influence another generation of young cricketers — 2005 was 14 years ago — I am sure there are a number of players in this team who were pretty young when that was happening and it would have inspired those to greater things, so hopefully this can do a similar thing for the next generation,” Bayliss said.
Even if England go on to win the World Cup, Bayliss would be stepping down as their coach after the Ashes in September.
“I have always been a believer that four or five years are long enough, whether you are doing well or not,” he said. “It is time for a new voice for the boys, to hopefully take them to another level,” he said.
