Trevor Bayliss sees Brad Haddin as a coach-in-the-making
England coach, Trevor Bayliss is of the opinion that Steven Smith is the ideal for the No. 3 slot in the Australian batting order. He also believes that wicketkeeper-batsmen, Brad Haddin should take up coaching in retirement.
Haddin and Smith along with Australia's captain Michael Clarke have been closely associated with the Australian origin coach.
Bayliss was responsible for moving up Smith to No. 3 in the batting line-up at the Sheffield Shield level, a position he earned after scoring a commendable century against West Australia in 2014. He had also advised Haddin to transit into coaching post retirement.
Brad Haddin as coach
"My view on that is I think he would make a good coach," Bayliss said of Haddin. "He's got the respect of the players and he's obviously a guy that's played at the top level and done well. And just his rapport with the players - it doesn't matter whether it's the older players or the younger players, they all gravitate to Hadds.”
Bayliss appreciated Haddin and said, "He's a positive character, good to talk to about cricket and even in his role as a captain or a leader of NSW for example, he's very good with the younger players passing on his knowledge. I was actually having a few discussions with him the possibilities of, whenever his retirement happened, hopefully getting him involved somehow with NSW cricket. I think it would be a benefit to NSW cricket if they can get him involved."
Bayliss’ move to coach the English team has created vacancies in the Blues and the Sydney Sixers Twenty20 sides. However, Trent Johnston is appointed as the acting coach of the state team temporarily. Bayliss reassured that the chief executive Andrew Jones, chairman John Warn and convenor of selectors David Freedman of New South Wales cricket would gladly welcome Haddin as coach.
"To be honest I don't know whether this will be his last series," Bayliss said. "He could quite easily go on to play the Australian summer as well and if he was to do that obviously doing anything from a coaching nature with the Sixers or NSW that would obviously be out of the question. But look, whenever it was to happen I think there are enough people in NSW cricket that know him well enough and have got a high enough opinion of him that they'll get him in there somehow." Bayliss said.
Steven Smith’s potential
Bayliss stated that Haddin and himself had discussed at length to motivate Smith’s growth by promoting him as vice-captain of the Sydney Sixers, which led the team to victory in the inaugural season of the Big Bash League.
"Hadds was actually the captain at the time, and it was certainly a discussion between Hadds and myself. Hadds sort of felt that we should make him vice-captain," Bayliss said. "That was before we knew that Hadds wasn't going to be there. Then when he was unavailable we just thought 'let's just throw him in at the deep end'.”
Bayliss further added, "He was strong enough of character - and a little bit like Hadds, a proactive sort of captain and he's well respected by everyone in the team and he knows his cricket. Quite simply, age doesn't mean anything and he did a fantastic job. Obviously to win the Big Bash in the first year was a great effort on his behalf.”
“We all know his technique is not out of the textbook but he's a competitor. He reads the game and he works out a way with his technique to score runs. If you do that and you're confident in your ability which he is... he's now the world's best batter”.
Bayliss backed Smith up by saying "He's the type of player I think that, faced with any challenges, he will be able to work it out. From England's point of view it will be a case of hopefully getting him into that position where he does have to work something else out and then hopefully staying one step ahead of him."
Bayliss hopes to see Haddin and Smith flourish in their respective positions.