England coach Trevor Bayliss has called for an end to T20 International cricket. Bayliss made the comment after England's win over New Zealand in the Trans-Tasman Tri Series. “Look, I haven’t changed my opinion on it. I wouldn’t play T20 internationals,” he said to Sky Sports. “I’d just let the franchises play. If we continue putting on so many games there’ll be a certain amount of blowout, not just players but coaches as well." Bayliss' comments come in the wake of a debate that was instigated by Adil Rashid choosing to lay off his first-class career for a year and signing a limited-overs only contract with Yorkshire. “If you want to play a World Cup every four years or whatever it is, maybe six months before you get the international teams and let them play some T20 internationals,” he said. Bayliss is not a fan of T20 cricket having earlier admitted that he had persuaded England Test captain Joe Root to sit out of the T20I Tri-Series after the Ashes. He also indicated that he might be persuading Root, who is ranked ninth in the ICC T20I rankings for batsmen, to give up the shortest format of the game altogether so as to help him concentrate the next Ashes series coming up in 2021 Adil Rashid's decision is seen as symptomatic of players' preference of T20 cricket over the longer formats of the game, particularly Test cricket. England's ODI batsman Jos Buttler said that T20Is could become the only format being played due to the success that the shorter format of the game has enjoyed at international and domestic franchise level and the subsequent diminishing of crowds for Test cricket. He also admitted that it would be sad as T20 cricket would never put a player through situations that will be encountered in a five-day match but, at the same time, players have to maximise their opportunities in the relatively short career-span that they have.
