A few things have become familiar in Trevor Bayliss’s time as England coach. The wide-brimmed floppy on his head and permanent long sleeves – Bayliss, like so many Australians, is well aware of the sun’s threat to those who spend a lifetime working in its glare – is one. A grinning, if not always winning, England team is another. So are the stern look and discreet style – pronouncements, public or private, come only when absolutely necessary.

Also heard regularly, more often by the players than the coach himself, have been the words “brand of cricket”, an idea echoed by the England and Wales Cricket Board’s chief executive, Tom Harrison, earlier this week when he said the national team would play “bold and brave cricket” under their new Test captain, Joe Root. Under Bayliss England have changed but, he claims, not because of him. The transformation has been player-led, particularly by Root – who replaced Alastair Cook in February – and Ben Stokes, a leadership group that seems far more in the coach’s image; indeed he believes that neither, particularly Stokes, should adjust his abrasive approach now their authority has been made official.

“I don’t have a style of play – I don’t play any more,” Bayliss says, speaking for the first time since the change of leadership. “That’s their style. It’s the modern way of playing a game that has been around for 150 years. More young players these days enjoy that – the players and the fans and, if we don’t give the fans what they want, then we will lose them and might lose the game of cricket. This is an entertainment business. If you are not entertaining, people don’t turn up.”

England are entertaining but at what cost? Bayliss says he has not been dispirited watching Australia, who have adapted so well in the subcontinent after England’s humbling there before Christmas. One sensed, however, the following day, as Australia hung on for a draw in Ranchi – something England were unable to do in circumstances he acknowledges were similarly trying – there would have been one Sydney-sider tinged with frustration. “At this stage,” he says of that trip, “we haven’t got the depth of other teams in the spin department, or the quality.”

Another trope of the Bayliss era has been “I haven’t seen him play” when a new player has joined his squad. Andrew Strauss, director of England cricket, knew what he was getting when he appointed Bayliss in May 2015: a tough coach with a diverse, deep CV but one who, in his own words, “had very little knowledge at all” of the English game. England’s schedule is relentless enough that Bayliss’s six weeks at home after the white-ball tour of India was his “first real break” since taking the job. Watching England’s ODIs in the Caribbean, for which he was “rested”, was a challenge in two ways: not only did they begin shortly after midnight in Sydney but he is “far more nervous watching on TV than at the ground”. Even in a comfy win “there was a fair bit of shouting”.

For the first time a concerted effort is being made to correct a shortcoming he is happy to acknowledge: that rudimentary knowledge of English players who do not play for England.

“I’m not a dictator,” he says here in Abu Dhabi, a nod to the important role played by Paul Farbrace and the selectors, his eyes and ears. This week’s North-South series provided “the perfect opportunity to have a look at guys just on the fringes”, while he will spend the first three rounds of the County Championship “driving around having a look”, with a Champions Trophy and Ashes looming. “If the schedule allows, it’s important to get out. That’s what I want to do,” he says. “It’s important they meet me. That I’m watching, if that adds a little bit to the contest, then that’s great.” By all accounts at North-South, his presence – a large part of the exercise – did just that.

He, like others in the England setup, believes the gap between the international and domestic games is wide but he was encouraged by the emergence of Haseeb Hameed and Keaton Jennings – amid a series of others who have found the step up much tougher – in India.

“County cricket must be doing something right if it can produce a couple of guys like that,” he says. “It’s not all bad. There always seems to be a bit of doom and gloom about the game but the players coming in are doing pretty well. We have to use what’s good about our game.”

On that theme, while he is delighted players such as Stokes will play in the IPL (where he coached Kolkata Knight Riders), he is agnostic about the introduction of a new T20 competition in England. “To me it doesn’t matter if it’s a new competition or an old one,” he says. “All that matters is that it is as good and competitive as possible in the standard of play.

“I’m not concerned about the money they have attracted [in the IPL] but getting experience in unfamiliar surroundings and mixing with the best players in the world and experiencing different conditions – pitches, crowds, everything else that comes with a competition like that [is what matters]. What’s important is bringing that to England.”

With his feet firmly under the table, leaders that suit him and his knowledge of his player base expanding, the next major staging post for Bayliss on the road to the World Cup is June’s Champions Trophy.

He says it is “no secret the batting is our strength” but believes the bowling is more than strong enough to win the event, because the injuries the attack has suffered – to Mark Wood, Reece Topley and David Willey – have fostered depth. “We will be very disappointed if we don’t do well,” he says. “If we play like we can, we will be very difficult to beat.”