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Tuesday April 16, 2024

Bayliss targets World Cup, Ashes double

By Agencies
January 21, 2019

LONDON: Despite England never having won a global 50-over tournament, head coach Trevor Bayliss still believes an Ashes win next summer would trump a World Cup triumph.

England will be hosting both match-ups in the same year for the first time since 1975 and have high expectations of emerging victorious from both assignments.

Should they defeat Australia in the second half of the summer, it would be Bayliss' second Ashes win as coach following the victory in the home series in 2015. Set against that is last winter's 4-1 defeat in Australia and if England are to reclaim the Ashes - and, indeed, win the World Cup - their players are going to have to deal with a huge amount of pressure.

"As we saw four years ago, there's nothing like beating Australia in the Ashes and, having lost in Australia just 12 months ago, it's hard to pick between them [the Ashes and World Cup]. Hopefully we can walk away with both trophies," he said.

"It wouldn't get any bigger if we did, especially at home. That would be special. That brings pressure in itself. It's something we've being trying to work towards, but when we get to the big stage in six months' time it's pretty much out of our hands [as coaches]. It'll be up to the guys to perform on the day. "I don't think we could have done much more. The [recent] results and the way the guys have started to play, we're certainly heading in the right direction.