Alastair Cook relishing his non-captaincy period, says Trevor Bayliss

Former England captain Alastair Cook is thoroughly relishing his time after stepping down from captaincy, says England coach Trevor Bayliss. Bayliss made this statement after England’s 211 run victory over South Africa in the first Test at Lords.

Cook stepped down from captaincy in the month of February this year after a horrific defeat in India. The left-handed genius has led the Three Lions in 59 Test which includes two Ashes series. In the second innings against South Africa Cook gained a bit of form and scored 69 runs.

Coach Trevor Bayliss said that he had a moment of laughter on seeing Cook run around the field. Cook looked happy and it is a positive sign for him.

“I was having a laugh watching him in the field, running around in the covers,” Bayliss told reporters. “He looked like he was enjoying it. For someone at this stage of his career, that’s a good sign.”

On Root’s captaincy debut:

According to the coach, Joe Root was nervous before his debut as a captain and compared his style of captaincy with that of Alastair Cook. Bayliss highlighted the fact that the two players are different individuals and have a different approach towards their batting. As a result, the dressing room atmosphere was a bit different but the messages were quite similar.

“Before this Test he (Root) was a little more on edge than I’ve seen him before,” Bayliss said.

“We spoke about Joe being himself, getting the message across in his way.

“He’s proactive and confident and I thought that came across in the way he led the team.

“Root and Cook are different characters, they go about their batting in different fashion, so the dressing room was a little different. A lot of the messages were similar, just delivered in a different way.” concluded Bayliss.

The second Test between the two teams kicks off on Friday at Trent Bridge in Nottingham.