Trevor Bayliss rates his England reign as five out of 10

SAM MORSHEAD AT THE OVAL: Bayliss's four-year stint at the helm will come to an end after the fifth and final Test of the Ashes series - due to begin at The Oval on Thursday - and he is scheduled to fly home on September 18

Outgoing England head coach Trevor Bayliss has given his tenure a five out of 10 rating ahead of his final game in charge of the side.

Bayliss’s four-year stint at the helm will come to an end after the fifth and final Test of the Ashes series - due to begin at The Oval on Thursday - and he is scheduled to fly home on September 18.

That will mark the end of a tale of two fortunes for the Aussie, whose reign oversaw a white-ball revolution and what could reasonably be considered regression in the red-ball arena.

In one-day international cricket, Bayliss's hands-off approach empowered Eoin Morgan to create a team in his own image, and that team went on to change the way in which the 50-over game is played worldwide and secure their first ever men's World Cup title.

Yet in the longest form of the sport, fortunes have been more fickle.

England have struggled for continuity with the bat, failed to adequately replace Sir Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss at the top of the order and became something of a soft touch on many of their overseas tours.

Bayliss is a reasonable man, and he accepted that his time in charge had hardly been perfect when he sat down with members of the UK written press for an exit interview on Tuesday.

Trevor Bayliss will stand down as England head coach after the fifth Ashes Test

"I'm a hard marker, so I’ll say five," he said, when asked to evaluate his overall performance.

"Well, I gave the guys four or five and six out of 10 for their fielding, because I always thought there was always room for improvement. If you give them eight, nine or 10, there's no room for improvement, is there?

"Test cricket hasn't gone as well as we would have liked. I think we've had more wins than losses but trying to find the depth in our Test ranks, as we have in our one-day ranks, will be a challenge going forward."

Bayliss was charged by the former director of England cricket Andrew Strauss with winning the home World Cup when he was appointed in 2015 - a target that was met on a dramatic Sunday evening at Lord’s in July.

There have also been notable Test achievements - victory in South Africa, the Ashes win of 2015 and last year’s 4-1 success over India the standout series.

But heavy defeats have also been received in India and Australia, and in recent months the sight of England's batting order crumbling in a single session or for a score in double digits has become unhappily familiar.

Bayliss places some of the blame for this on a county structure which he feels does not provide players with the optimum preparation for international cricket.

In fact, in an interview with The Sun this week, he advocated streamlining the number of counties involved in first-class competition to improve the quality of the tournament.

That will not go down well with members of clubs who have previously been made aware that Bayliss does not watch an awful lot of the county game.

"The only questions you've got to ask is 'is the competition underneath doing the job well enough?'," he said.

"There are some talented players and coaches. Is the actual competition doing the job? Can we do it better?"

Ultimately, that will not be a question to which Bayliss will be expected to find an answer.

The hunt is already on for his replacement, with director of England men's cricket Ashley Giles known to favour a system with a single overarching head coach and a handful of deputies, each entrusted with more responsibility for looking after the side during certain series.

Alec Stewart is among the leading contenders, while Mickey Arthur is keen.

"I think there's a few guys here in England who could quite possibly do the job," said Bayliss, who intimately knows the skillsets of candidates such as Chris Silverwood and Paul Collingwood.

"I'm sure they'd all do an admirable job, that's for sure. There are plenty of good coaches here in England. It depends on what you're looking for. Are you looking for some international experience? That'll be up to what Ashley thinks the team needs at this moment, and who best fits that."

So what advice would Bayliss offer to his successor?

"Don't change. Do things the way you've done them before.

"I'm sure whoever comes in, to get a job like this you've got to have some kind of success behind you. Do things the way you've approached them all the time. Enjoy it. The game is here to be loved.

"It's one of the messages I've tried to give to the players: you have to remember, approach the game for the reasons you took it up in the first place. You take up the game of cricket because you love the game. Love it, enjoy it and I think you get the results because of that."

Ashley Giles is on the lookout for Bayliss's replacement

Easier said than done, perhaps, particularly under the harsh glare of England's cricket media.

Bayliss says he was warned about those pressures prior to taking the job but he has managed to maintain a decent rapport with the men and women charged with covering his side’s story in the years since.

And there was a lovely touch at his final press conference on Tuesday when ESPNcricinfo senior reporter George Dobell presented Bayliss with a hip flask, inscribed with the words "drinking positively", a scented candle and a CD of whale music as a leaving present from the English press pack.

Dobell had suggested in a column around the time of England's ill-fated Ashes tour in 2017-18 that if Bayliss's role was purely to create a relaxing environment in the England dressing room, he could "be replaced by a couple of scented candles, a yucca plant and a CD of ambient whale noise".

It is testament to the coach that he took the comment, just as he accepted his leaving gift, with good grace and a smile.

"It's not as if I just let it flow without anything happening," Bayliss said.

"We (the coaches) are always talking and discussing individuals and I let them do their job and go and do the work with the players.

"I've got my style. As I've said before, I don't think there's one right way or one successful way. There's different styles of coaches that can have success in their different ways. I made a pact with myself to keep doing things the way I've done it. It's been successful over a long period of time and I'd like to think it's been reasonably successful in these four years as well."

Bayliss backed Joe Root to continue and succeed as England Test captain, and suggested that the next Ashes series in Australia in two years' time could go the way of the tourists if they manage to keep their raw pacemen fit - though he will most certainly be cheering for the Aussies.

At the end of it all, though, he says the time is right for him to move on - firstly to a period of rest and relaxation and then T20 franchise coaching gigs in the Bangladesh Premier League and Indian Premier League.

"I've said all along, I've never spent more than four or five years somewhere, whether you're doing well or not. It's time for the lads to hear a new voice," he said.

"Whether you're doing well or not, you never want to become part of a problem. If you stay too long, that's what can happen.

"I'm quite happy to be heading home now but with fond memories. I'm sad to leave in one way. There's been plenty of good people I've been able to work with - from players to coaching staff, management staff, ECB, county coaches and administration. I've been welcomed with open arms, it's been fantastic.

"When I first came over I didn't know what to expect. There was all the talk about how tough you guys were and I was a little worried about that, I suppose. But in the end it was just be yourself and take it as it comes."