Ian Bell may return for England as Trevor Bayliss seeks ‘tougher’ batting line-up

England are ready and willing to make changes. Their coach, Trevor Bayliss, intends to trawl the county circuit early this summer in a talent-spotting exercise.

The heavy defeat in the final Test of the series against South Africa illustrated how vulnerable the side remains. While it hardly diminished the excellence of their earlier play, which yielded wins in two Tests, spectacular feats in another and series victory, the weaknesses in several areas could not be disguised.

Bayliss, not a man either to panic or make grand gestures, has hardly had a chance to see any players outside the England team since his arrival last July. He has overseen the regaining of the Ashes and the series victory here against the world’s No 1 side but both were marked by being beaten in the last match.

Dead rubbers, perhaps, but they also exposed glaring deficiencies. Bayliss is not proposing a revolution but he knows what he is looking for.

“I suppose a little bit of current selection and a little bit of looking towards the future as well,” he said. “From my point of view, it is not necessarily about technique and number of runs scored. It is style of player or person. I think guys that have got a bit about them, guys who are a little bit tougher.

“They always seem to be the guys that can make it at the top level,” he added. “You don’t necessarily have to have the best technique to score runs or take wickets. It’s how you use the technique that you’ve got and being hard enough and strong enough and smart enough to be able to use that in the right context.”

Perhaps it was a veiled message to some of the players who have been in South Africa, perhaps not. Almost all 12 of the players performed with credit at times in the series but too few of them made major contributions when it mattered.

Batting places, particularly, are up for grabs – at two, three and five in the order. Bayliss and the selectors may yet be prepared to give the incumbents an opportunity to press their claims, having overseen the regaining of the Ashes and the triumph here, but he also wants to make it clear that nothing is guaranteed.

“I think I’ve said before that potential never won a thing,” he said. “There’s still a lot of hard work to do and the performance in the last Test is a bit of a reminder, a bit of a kick up the backside to the players that we still have a lot of hard work in front of us. I still think we are probably two or three years away from reaching our absolute best.”

It is not only young players who will be able to impress Bayliss in the four rounds of County Championship matches that will be played before the opening Test match of the summer, against Sri Lanka in May.

On the old but firm grounds that you are always a better player out of the side than in it (based on promise and the memory of former glories which eradicate faults) no one had a better tour of South Africa than Ian Bell.

He has made it clear that he wants to return and nothing that England did in the four Tests against South Africa remotely suggested that he should be discarded. Where he or any other newcomer would bat is open to question but Bayliss intriguingly suggested that he is prepared to shuffle the order. This may involve the only stellar player in it, Joe Root, who has batted at four in the last 10 Tests. It may also mean that Alex Hales and Nick Compton, respectively at two and three here, swap roles.

“I’ve said before [I like] having two out of your top three to be of a more attacking style,” Bayliss said. “A simple fact is that if you haven’t got those players, you have to make do with the players that you have. That’s where having Cooky [Alastair Cook] and Compton there, we have two guys to build an innings around. But there are a few options.

“For example, Root is at No 4. He is our best player. Does he go to No 3? That’s something that we’ll have to discuss – and obviously with Rooty as well. That might be a little further down the line but it is one of those options that we have to discuss.

“Compton has done the job as an opener before and I think Hales has batted at No 3 before. That is certainly an option and has been spoken about in the past.”

But options for England are plentiful. Better to make them in the warm glow of unexpected victory.

1. Good early-season form could see Ian Bell return to bat at four with the side’s best batsman, Joe Root, moving to three.

2. Alex Hales and Nick Compton could merely swap roles and although that would mean a one-dimensional opening pair, it might also be more solid.

3. Unheard of on this tour but an ever present in the nets, Gary Ballance will certainly push James Taylor for a place at No 5, where he may be much more comfortable than he was at three. Taylor needs runs quickly.