England’s Jos Buttler smiles as he walks out from the pitch at the end of England’s innings during the fourth ODI against Pakistan at Dubai Sports City on November 20. (AFP). Right: England’s Alex Hales jubilates after catching the ball to dismiss Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik during the fourth ODI at Dubai Sports City in Dubai, on November 20. (AFP) 


AFP/Dubai


England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss praised his team’s progress in one-day cricket following their 3-1 triumph over Pakistan, seven months after their disastrous 2015 World Cup campaign.
England were the only of the top eight teams which crashed out in the first round in Australia and New Zealand in March-April. But since then a new-look England gave a good account of themselves, beating the World Cup finalists New Zealand 3-2 and losing to world champions Australia by the same margin.
Bayliss, who took over after the World Cup, said: “We’ll take it one game and one series at a time.
“Our goal is obviously a World Cup in four years’ time, but there’s no use thinking about that right now.”
England, who hosted the first three editions of the World Cup (1975-83) have yet to win the global 50-over event. They host the event again in 2019.
Bayliss, whose team heads to South Africa for four Tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 next month, believes hard work is imperative.
“We’ve got a lot of hard work to do between now and then. Yes it’s good to win matches and series like we did, but we can’t rest on our laurels, there’s a lot of hard work to be done.”
Bayliss praised his batting unit.
“They’re enjoying their cricket, they’re enjoying each other’s company and each other’s success, and it’s showing out on the field.  
“There’s been some fantastic innings in this series. Alex Hales, Jason Roy and Jos Buttler played well, (Joe) Root and (James) Taylor have also done extremely well, everyone in the top six has contributed more than once.
“So too have the bowlers and it’s added up to a fine performance.”
Bayliss said beating Pakistan in tough conditions was praiseworthy.
“It’s great to win away from home, especially on the subcontinent against a team like Pakistan who are playing in conditions they know very well.
“They should have a lot of confidence from the way they’ve played going into the three T20 matches, knowing they can play in these conditions against this quality of opposition.”
Bayliss hopes the forthcoming three-match Twenty20 series will help for next year’s World Twenty20 in India.
“It’s another step on the way to that World Cup. We want to play this T20 series and win that as well as we possibly can, but it’s also a bit of a testing ground.”
Dubai will host the first two Twenty20 matches on November 26 and 27 followed by the third in Sharjah on November 30.