Friday 3 February 2017 07:47, UK
Trevor Bayliss says he has no idea whether Alastair Cook will choose to stay on as England's Test captain.
Cook's future remains unresolved six weeks after a 4-0 series defeat in India brought an admission he was considering his position as skipper.
A meeting with former opening partner Andrew Strauss, now the England and Wales Cricket Board's managing director, came and went in January without word on a decision.
And Bayliss, who remained in India for the one-day series, said: "I'll be as interested as anyone else in the decision that he makes. I've had my thoughts on white-ball cricket. I haven't spoken to Cookie since he left India.
"I haven't even had any messages with him at all. I haven't spoken to Straussy about his meeting or chatted with him either. He just said 'we'll let you concentrate on what you're doing out there'.
"I'll wait for a couple of days after I get home and make a few phone calls and see what's happened.
"I said to him when he left I'd be happy if he stays and I'd be happy if he wants to go. From a captaincy point of view he's the only one that will know if the time is right for him to go. I don't know how he's feeling on the inside and to be
honest I haven't spoken to him about that."
Joe Root is favourite to succeed Cook should the captaincy become available, but Bayliss said: "I think you could throw a few of them in the mix and find they've got the respect of the rest of their team-mates."
The winter tour ended of India on a low as they lost eight wickets for eight runs in Bangalore to slip to series defeat in the T20s, but India captain Virat Kohli said after the game he did not expect the collapse to hit England players' chances of landing Indian Premier League places.
Ben Stokes and Jason Roy are expected to enter the auction later this month and Bayliss - former coach of Kolkata Knight Riders - has urged franchises to take a chance.
"If any team picked those guys up, they'd be getting some very, very good cricketers," he said.
"Obviously Stokes and Jason have done extremely well for England in white-ball cricket just recently and neither of those guys have really played over here."
