Shane Watson wary of Trevor Bayliss ‘information’

Australia all-rounder Shane Watson believes England may gain an Ashes “edge” from the “inside information” new coach Trevor Bayliss could provide.

Bayliss, 56, was appointed as the first Australian to coach England in May and has taken over just before the Ashes, which start in Cardiff on 8 July.

“He knows a lot of us very well,” said Watson. “He’ll have these ideas about how he can try to expose our team.

“But we know that if we are at our best we will be very hard to beat.”

Australia won the last Ashes series 5-0 down under but have not won a series in England for 14 years.

Watson said Bayliss was a “sad loss” to Australian cricket and when asked what advantage the new coach could give to England, replied: “The edge will be the inside information he will have.”

‘He’s probably got a bit of dirt on us’

Bayliss, who coached Sri Lanka from 2007-2011, took temporary charge of Australia for their Twenty20 series in South Africa in 2014.

He has also won the Sheffield Shield in first class cricket with New South Wales and Twenty 20 titles with both Sydney Sixers and Kolkata Knight Riders

“He was my New South Wales coach for a little bit so I got to spend a bit of time with him over the last couple of years,” said Watson.

“He has had a lot of success in any team that he has coached.

“He knows the game incredibly well so England are very lucky to have the calibre of Trevor Bayliss. He is only going to help them.”

Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin says Bayliss has had a “massive influence” on his career and one of his qualities was that he “takes a lot of the anxiety out of the room”.

And the tourists’ pace bowler Mitchell Johnson added: “He’s probably got a bit of dirt on us but that doesn’t mean a hell of lot when you are out in the middle.”

What? Jimmy said that?

England bowler Jimmy Anderson echoed Australia captain Michael Clarke’s view of playing the series in the right spirit. 

However, Anderson’s comments were met with a degree of scepticism from the Australian camp.

“Coming from Jimmy who is probably their biggest sledger, he gets involved in the game as much as anyone,” said Johnson.

Watson added: “I just find that very interesting coming from Jimmy, especially.”